


Nothing to it

by TFALokiwriter



Category: Lost in Space (TV 1965)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gemini 12, Gen, Goes from worse to better, Healing, Hope, Post-Episode: s03e24 Junkyard in Space, Priplanus, Pure Speculation, ambigious
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-09-01 19:30:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20263351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFALokiwriter/pseuds/TFALokiwriter
Summary: Penny couldn't feel her tears anymore after having fallen into the personal and rich world that was optimistic even wholesome. All the times that were good and bad to the crew of the Jupiter 2. Despite all the bad things they went through either by their own hands, the survivors clung together as a family unit. A fictional retelling of her life. She believed in the Robot, the Jupiter 2, and  Doctor Smith.  As she believed them enough;  the world that had been created became real.





	1. Chapter 1

It had been three years since the Gemini 12 had been exiled to the planet Priplanus. Three long, saddened, sorrowful, and bitter years. Three years that Penny had been jotting down on her diary, alone, in her shack. Her orange sweater was tattered and torn at the sleeves, her once bright yellow tank top with faded orange lines was a size too small, too little, for her well cared for growing feminine figure. Her orange ribbons were discarded long ago after they became too thin to continue using.

She lowered the pen down with the string tied around it to the heart of the diary gazing down at the text. If only it had been true. If only it had happened that way. A ship with two decks, a operating mechanical protector, Doctor West being a trained officer for combat, and someone as backstabbing and sneaky being on her family’s side even trained for medicine. A figure that the family didn't have. Someone who would have best acted as her brother’s friend and worked in his best interest even fumbling up the plan but everything turned out well in the long run despite the conflict wedged in the family. Even appearing in the nick of time before one of Will's not so bright ideas came to being.

A single tear dropped on the paper of the diary then spread growing big and bigger until it were a small puddle. More tears landed on to the white paper recently stained by ink on the last page. She was all alone. She only had survival equipment capable of synthesizing her toiletries and her mobile toilet. Her mother and father had been taken away in the first year, then Doctor West, then Judy, then Will was left behind to act as her protector. Will, too, was taken away to spare her. Just as everyone had done. Everything was done to save her.

Her once neat and tidy dark braided hair was messy, long, miserable. Her hair reached down to her lower region, it felt heavy, and it was damaged. The Penny Robinson reflected on paper was someone who had everything, a extended family, a voyage in the stars, and hope for the future. A future that wasn’t too dim, too distant, too sad, or lost of any form of optimism. She put the novel on to the improvised counter beside her and slipped into bed sobbing. Yet, the Robinsons on paper had to be faced with reality just as she had to.

Her garden had died of a bad insect infestation weeks ago. Winter had just set in so it would be months before vegetation and livestock returned. A garden that had flourished and spread before its demise. A garden ---that she had personally outside of the shack-- that had been tenderly made her hands.

A shack that was made out of the dirt, out of the wood, out of the leaves, long standing to withstand the forces of nature. One that had been a family effort. In many ways her family was protecting her through their action after all these years. There were nights that she wished during mother nature’s storms the wind would force it to fall apart on her then for the rough hurricane to carry her body away.

That was the end of the story. That was the end of the novel, Penny decided, the end was sudden on paper and cruel. Cruel, depressing, toxic, yet the thought that they were together was the more uplifting quality. If she were to die then so would the story on a positive note being stranded on yet another planet and some shred of hope that they would get off it in part by the junk man and their food supply restocked. The Robot's memories and feelings corrupting the junk man's heart but how dearly would it matter after his memory tapes have been removed and returned to Robot?

It was easy to decide from there that she wasn’t going to get up. There was nothing left to keep her going. She slipped inside the silver and bright sleeping bag that hadn’t changed much over the last three years. She had changed. She _had_. She wasn’t the intrigued, curious, friendly young girl anymore but more of a wary creature that stayed on its territory struggling to survive and lived in its own view of the world.

Penny closed her eyes with tears trailing down her skin. She fell into the darkness, all alone; scared, sad, bitter, and angry with tears trailing ahead of her in the pitch black. The spectacle of blue rushing below her within her imagination floating in the dark. As if it had lost its fragile hope and the white had been drained away.

She must have been in slumber for days at her own will haven given up. Penny used to care how long she slept but now she didn’t. She was floating in the memories of before. Before Will had been taken away. Before Doctor West was taken away. Before Judy was taken away. Before her parents were taken away. Before she had to let Debbie go.

Living in each and every one of the memories was a far better existence of acknowledging the loneliness once more. Loneliness that resulted from hiding and running away from newcomers that could be the next ones to kill her or use her in conditions that were worse than the present ones. Fear kept her from approaching the newcomers. Experience kept her from approaching them and knowledge of the landscape kept her safe from their hands.

She was back to the beginning with her family as a whole. Six months spent camping in the Gemini 12 and taming the land as their own with tests before calling a garden. Will chasing after the ostriches and racing with her on the tortoises having the time of their lives on the rapidly speeding creatures. 

No, it wasn't that way. It happened the way she had written it down as. She crashed into the events that had been transcribed onto paper. She forged the memories in belief replacing the real with the fake falling into a more comfortable and hopeful reality. It was real. All of it was real. The reality out of the dark was all that wasn't real. It was a nightmare. A terrible nightmare that had gone on far longer than it was supposed to go.

A high pitch wail yanked Penny out of the induced slumber out of shock and alarm. Looking around the room, Penny was struck by reality and wept into her hands. The high pitch wail returned giving her a long unusual pause raising her head up from her hands. She remembered the sound quite dearly. A sound that she had heard when making it up on paper.

A wail that started out as a sign of hope. It was of a long extinct animal back on Earth. She slid out of the bed listening to the sound of the wail. It was easy to deduce that she wasn’t imagining it. There was rays of light pouring by the window made of left over cell bars from the second aliens that tried to split her family into two halves. The sound was curious enough to bring her, tentatively, but cautiously toward the wooden door.

Penny slid the diary over into her hand then bolted out through the doorway to her shack and shielded her eyes gazing in the direction of the source letting in the cold air and snow fall into her shack. Her feminine figure was trembling as the bitter cold wind beat against her face and her long flowing hair floated was flying in the air.

Her eyes squinted adjusting to the shape that was hovering against the black canvas with stars surrounding it and the two moons that hung in orbit. No, it looked like there were three moons. The third moon was closer than the rest standing out as quite odd and surreal.

Her eyes stared at the third moon long enough to make out a far familiar shape that appeared to have two floors by the looks of it. It wasn’t a moon. It was a saucer. There was a familiar second set of viewing window below it. The very image that she had visualized during the conception of the other Robinson family. The more travel appealing version of the tin can that brought her family to Priplanus. _Other Robinson family?_ She lowered her hand staring toward the source in shock. Two figures stared back at her. _But, it can’t be. It can’t be!_

The ship gently flew into the distance leaving her back in the dark listening to the sound of the swaying trees and the high pitch shriek become distant. Her legs moved one after the other as her makeshift moccasins crunched in the snow. She found herself running after it. She tripped and fell over a root landing down to her knees and her hands. 

Penny got back up to her feet continuing with vigor that she hadn’t had in the last two years. The energy that she had in the first year with hope in her veins had returned. She came to a stop at a large clearing then stood there watching the landing gear come down out of the belly of the ship as the wind blew the remaining tall blades of grass back and the snow retreated revealing the bright green crowd below the whirring lights then the ship came down to the ground. 

The high pitch shriek died underneath the ship. The cold wind came back being noisy against the background among the soft hooting belonging to the alien owls. Shivers went down her skin standing outside in the cold with little to shield her body from the weather. A long staircase came down soundlessly landing five feet away from her. Penny approached the staircase feeling uneasy and terrified with a tremble yet she stood still once coming to a stop by the stairs looking up toward the front window.

Golden light poured out of the doorway as the door slid up before her eyes retreating into the dark then a tall figure came to the doorway. The figure took a few steps forward to the top of the staircase and placed both hands on the rail while the shadows blocked a good view of his face. She can feel the figure’s eyes laid on her. Yet, she didn’t feel intimidated. Only curiosity and safe in the dark looking up.

“Hello there!” A old deep voice belonging to a man in his fifties came forth, the same voice that she had heard in her head when she started to write him, as the figure came down the stairs. He walked in the same way, cheerfully, almost silly, in a way a cartoon character would as she had transitioned him over from hard core threatening to the most camp character there was. He took off a pair of sunglasses then tucked them into his pocket. “Is this Nevona?” 

Penny shook her head.

“N-N-N-N-N-no,” Penny said.

“Good heavens!” The older man turned away with his back to her. “I took the wrong route,” he grunted dropping his face into his hands. “Those star charts _were _out of date after all.” He shamefully lowered his shoulders in a fit of misery and sorrow even dismay. His voice dripped with the characterization that she had written into her diary. “Oh dear, oh dear, the team isn’t going to be happy about this road block.”

“Star charts?” Penny found her voice.

“Yes,” the older man replied. “Star charts.”

“Oh . .”

The figure turned toward Penny taking a step forward into the light. The light emitting from the ship highlighted his mainly red uniform with a secondary black theme and a strange baseball hat that was on backwards. His hat was slightly off revealing his dark graying hair was a secondary theme to the gray that had taken over his once raven hair. His face once decorated in contempt changed to concern. A clutch of light gray covered the tips of his ears with hints of his dark hair remaining. He was a year older than how she had last visualized him.

“Is there something the matter, child?” The older man asked.

“No. . No. . No,” Penny said.

The older man looked behind Penny then came to a stop in front of her.

“Seems the team can do without their volunteer batter for a championship,” The older man said. “What is your name?" 

“Penelope Robinson,” Penny said.

“Pleased to meet you, Penelope,” the older man held his hand out with a smile. “I am Doctor–“

“Doctor Zachary Smith,” Penny took his hand as his brows furrowed then shook it then the expression faded. “Doctor Smith.”

“I was not aware my exploits was that wide known,” Smith said, sheepishly. “From Tauron to the middle of no where.” He looked down upon her then frowned. “What a shame!” He stepped back scanning her attire. “Is that your night wear?”

“No,” Penny shook her head, weakly. “it is what I wear every day. . .” She leaned against the railing of the staircase. “I wore out my pajamas a few months ago.”

“Every. . .” Smith raised his brows for emphasis at each word. “Every. . Miss Robinson?”

Penny was dumbstruck staring at Smith. Smith had just called her by Miss Robinson not by her preferred nickname or had prodded her on her full name. She was, in his eyes, a grown woman. She hadn’t looked at herself in the longest time. Just her hands, fingernails, book, pen, garden, meat, fruit, vegetables, and anything that was in her hands or line of sight. She had to look at herself. She had lived mainly in her imagination for most of the year escaping the cruel reality. She was almost terrified to look at herself. Almost.

She looked down at her tattered uniform clenching on the long strings that came down from it. Ones that she hadn’t been quite able to repair with little knowledge on how to thread it, reuse it, she had learned quickly that yanking off the stray thread would make her run out of string faster. What little string she had was reused for the candles. Penny looked up toward the older man who’s hands were looking down toward her with a smile that radiated of innocence. A feeling that she wrote into her novel when he was trying to worm his way out of a trouble.

“Yes,” Penny said.

“You can stay in my ship for the night,” Smith put a hand on the center of her back.

“You don’t have to offer your ship for me,” Penny said.

“I insist!” Smith said. “And get yourself properly dressed,” he scowled at the small uniform. “The travesty, the cruelty, the heartaches–“ he looked down with a frown putting his other hand on her shoulder quite taken back. “Whatever happened to civilization here, milady?”

Penny waved her diary in mid-air.

“You can read it all here if you like,” Penny said.

Penny turned away as Smith grimaced to himself while she went up the stairs.


	2. Chapter 2

Upon boarding the saucer, Penny was met by the familiar interior. The visualization that she first had of the Jupiter 2's residential deck was everything as she thought that it had been with a row of rooms, the galley, the laboratory, the half of the deck that had the rechargeable disk on the ceiling capable of lowering down and charging up the environmental Robot. It even had the door leading to engineering and supplies. The laboratory’s path was persistent in the way that she had last remembered it. The way that she had last imagined it to be in her mind when it came to the major’s quarters.

All the feelings that she were used to slid off her figure and her mind as if she were being cleaned by a shower that cleaned off the negative emotions. Everything felt right standing in the center of the saucer. That this was the right place to be. She turned toward Smith as the door closed behind him. She stiffened, searching for places to hide, though the terrified feelings began to fade watching a gem of genuine concern standing out on his face.

“No need to fear,” Smith said. "A friend is here,” Penny started to fall then he joined to her side helping her stand upright. Smith felt the side of her ribs with his fingers that momentarily shocked him. “Do you have anything of importance?”

“Just what I have on hand,” Penny said. “I can stand on my own.”

“Are you ill?” Smith asked, concerned.

“No,” Penny said.

“My dear . . .” Smith said. “You are not well.”

“I haven’t been eating for a while,” Penny admitted.

“That shall change within my ship!” Smith announced.

“Can I use the bathroom?” Penny asked.

Smith looked down upon the woman holding the diary carefully in his larger hands.

“You may,” Smith said.

Penny stared in awe at the door.

“A bathroom. . .” Penny whispered.

Smith tapped on her shoulder then she turned toward him.

“I need to perform measurements of your body,” Smith said. “What kind of uniform would you like?”

“Teenager,” Penny said. “Warm, vibrant.”

A part of Penny was wary, scanning the room, even skeptical. It was too good to be true standing in somewhere safe with a stranger who was identical in every way to her creation. How could he exist as he did on paper? The chances were astronomical but he was there and so was the Jupiter 2. The ship wasn’t themed in colors of black or in gray but in kind colors such as light brown, light purple, and dark gray. The living deck aggressively radiated in kindness, remaining unchanged, as if the entire ship was showing itself not hiding a thing. Just the way she had concepted it as.

“Comfortable.” Penny added.

“Yes,” Smith said. “But, what color?”

“Purple, green, and pink,” Penny listed.

“Those are a very . . .” Smith couldn’t bring himself to finish it.

“Very what?” Penny asked. “What is it, Doctor Smith?”

“Once you pick it, you have to wear it, every day,” Smith said. “Until it has to be replaced.”

“And that is your choice of uniform?” Penny asked.

“It’s a sports jersey!” Smith insisted. “I only wear it once a year.”

“And it is a real eyesore,” Penny said. “Animals with bright colors usually have them for aesthetic purposes relating to mating or how poisonous they are. I don’t know what sports team has a bull with antlers and Christmas lights on the uniform but it already sounds a too boyish for me.”

“I didn’t expect having to meet non-sports fans,” Smith had a scoff. “You are a young woman interested in nature and older men are interested in conflict. You will always find sports too boyish for your taste!” He gestured toward her. “That color arrangement will make you stand out. And I am not quite sure _that _is in your interest.”

“I anticipate people having to see me this way,” Penny said. “I like it to be a short skirt.”

“Short skirt?” Smith repeated, incredulously. “There is such thing as too short of a skirt.”

“Long sleeves, lots of patterns, and matching boots,” Penny said.

“Miss Robinson, how old are you?” Smith asked, concerned.

“Fourteen,” Penny said. 

“Ah. . .” Smith became quiet then balanced her against the wall and walked on past her. Smith returned a few moments later from another room holding a small flashdrive that was glowing. “That explains a lot,” Smith waved the small device around her figure then stepped aside. “Now, the bathroom is this way. Directly between two of the cabins.”

Penny was guided to the doorway of the bathroom.

“I never thought about that part,” Penny approached the bathroom then grabbed on to the handle looking up and down. “I was so focused on the adventures. . .”

“Can you walk on your own in short distances with this fatigue?” Smith asked.

“Yes. . .” Penny slouched against the doorway then the doctor helped her up to her feet.

“How in the heavens did you walk so far from your colony?” Smith asked, incredulously.

Penny slid the door open then went inside and smacked the door close behind her. Smith looked down upon the book then slid it open with one hand while balancing the other item in his other hand moving the equipment to the table. He sped read the hundreds of pages feeling his heart drop and sat down. He slammed the book shut then sped his way into another doorway and returned moments later with a navy blue machine.

A gleeful shriek came from the bathroom with a loud audible sigh out of relief that made him jump then turn toward the direction of the bathroom. She must have just sat on the toilet. A ordinary toilet in a very long time. The first noise of excitement that told him the young girl wasn’t that all reluctant in being open.

Smith shook his head in mirth then turned away back toward the machine. He connected the small flash drive into the machine and typed in a set of colors. With a ding, the tray popped out revealing the perfectly wrapped clothes and slippers underneath. He opened the door slightly then put the clothes on to the floor and slid them in. He closed the door turning his back toward it.

“You still want to go to Alpha Centauri?” Smith asked.

Penny hummed to herself using her wrist to slide down the toilet button down.

“Yes,” Penny said. “If it is possible.”

She washed her hands in the sink wiping away all the dirt.

“Do you know where your family is?” Smith asked. 

Penny stopped, looking at herself, staring at the young woman staring back at her.

“I do,” Penny said.

Smith was silent outside for a very long moment. 

“When did your clothing synthesize break?” Smith asked.

Penny looked off, frowning, that turned to sadness.

“Last year,” Penny said. “Will accidentally broke it.” She shook her head before amending. “No,” she looked toward the floor. “I know he used to get us out of the mess we landed in. It is the only machine that Will gave to the Boclarons and it exploded in their lab.”

“He used it as a welcoming gift,” Smith said.

“Yes,” Penny nodded lifting her attention up. “But I call them the Saticons.”

“Why so?” Smith asked.

“Because they are like machines,” Penny said. “You know how they sway in unison as if they are connected.”

“Hmm. . . interesting!” Smith laughed, thoroughly amused, rubbing his hands together as his shoulders shook. “Didn’t think of them that way.” Smith cleared his throat then added. “Penelope, I will reunite you with your family.”

He waited a full moment for a gleeful shout then frowned when there was none. Her energy was poor from the lack of eating that she couldn’t be excited as she wanted to be.

“I have a cabin left open for you,” Smith continued. “In the meantime, I will be staying a few days on this planet if this is alright with you. But it seems it will have to be in the warmer climate. I have enough fuel to make that flight. Is that alright with you?"

“It is,” Penny said.

“I will begin searching for Deutronium with my fuel finder in the morning,” Smith said.

“Robot is with you, too?” Penny asked, her voice piping up. Yet, she couldn’t help but feel a little stupid asking the question.

“Yes. . .” Smith replied, his brows furrowing from the other side of the door. “Has been for quite a while.”

They were always together. And always would be no matter how different their backgrounds would be, no matter how different their planet of origins would be, no matter how circumstances made them cross each others paths, these two were bound to be together in the same place. She had written them as that way, reluctant brothers in arms, forged by fire, forged in betrayal, forged in love, and petty entertaining bickering that they enjoyed.

“Don’t touch him or touch any buttons. He is a very delicate machine. The slightest change in his programming and he will go haywire!”

“I remember the last time he went chaotic on the bridge,” Penny said, fondly. 

Smith tilted his head, taken back, as though he found her comments quite strange.

“I will see you in the morning,” Smith said. “And I will leave you a new diary.”

“Thank you,” Penny said. Then Smith started to walk away. His shadow was easy to see pouring in through the gap underneath the door. “Doctor Smith . . .”

“Yes, my dear?” Smith approached the door. “Is anything of grave consequence?”

“Is this a dream? A dying dream? Is this real?” Penny asked. “A wishing mind wanting everything to go tidy and neat where they belong? Is being happy too much to ask? The rational part of my mind says I am hallucinating. And that I am still in bed sleeping away the day. Is being with my family again mean I have to go through my own What Dreams May Come journey?”

Smith didn’t reply for a moment.

“I am as real as you are,” Smith reassured. “I am real.” She sat on the lid of the toilet looking down toward her hands. “You are not dying. You are experiencing a miracle. A coincidence if you like but a genuine miracle that you met someone interested in helping a child reunite with their family. Don’t concern yourself with the clothing. I will discharge of it after you get dressed and afterwards, you may properly decide what you can take. I have already made your pajamas.”

“This ship is based off weight,”

“It is,”

“I can only take photos,”

“Yes,”

“I have a few,”

“Good! I will leave some food for you on the table,” Smith’s voice was soft and kind even sincere. A tone of voice that she hadn’t imagined that often writing him. “You can get your belongings in the morning.”

Finally, Smith’s footsteps trailed away from the bathroom.

Penny took off her uniform then her pants, orange matching boots that had been worn down to their soles and kept together by sheer will and innovation using the surroundings to make sandals out of them. She put them into a clump then stood upright facing the glass window. She put her hand on the glass window then slid it aside.

Penny slipped into the shower, closed the door behind her, then stood still. She felt all the dirt vibrate off her figure. A warm hum came from above with a feeling that carried throughout her skin. Happiness, joy, a sprinkle of old feelings that were real, enlisted her laughter to ring in the glowing blue chamber. It was a feeling which Penny welcomed.

She looked up searching for the water only to find nothing was there inside the blue light beaming on in the wide compartment. She slipped out then approached the mirror. She slid open the drawer then looked down spotting the scissors. She picked the scissors up then grabbed her long hair and lifted it up._ Snip. Snip. Snip. _The long dark messy hair was dropped on to the counter. Her head felt lighter, freed, and better. She waved her head from side to side feeling the thrill of cleanliness settling in then stared at the mirror.

Penny Robinson, the _other _Penny Robinson, looked back at her with a reassuring smile radiating of optimism contrasting the real Penny Robinson’s shaking demeanor with a little smile starting to carefully and cautiously come out. She stroked along her chin as the fear lost its grip over her became lost. Penny slipped on the pajamas then exited the bathroom with a loudly grumbling stomach.

On the table laid mash potatoes with gravy, a sandwich, a hashbrown, and pickles.

Smith apparated by Penny’s side then placed a hand on her shoulder preventing her from falling over.

When Penny looked up toward Smith, she knew everything was going to be alright.

For the first time in over two years, Penny wasn’t eating alone and that was a good start.


	3. Chapter 3

Penny awoke that morning laid on her side. The dream from last night echoed in her mind, the Jupiter 2 arriving in the middle of the night, Doctor Smith arriving and welcoming her in, bringing into a more welcoming environment. A tear started to fall down her cheek at the harsh reality so she wiped it off. As she wiped off even more tears sitting on the edge of the bed, she observed the shape belonging to her shack was different and the familiar brown tint to it was gone replaced by gray. Her tears stopped if only briefly as she regained her composure.

It was all real. The Jupiter 2 was real. Doctor Smith was real just as she was. Skin, bone, and thread. She looked down toward her neat, fluffy, pleasant smelling pink slippers. They were completely real. Was it? Was it all her imagination? She couldn’t help but feel doubts over the matter. A living image set before her eyes that she could walk in if she believed it were real and wished it were real, imagined how it felt to be there, and the temperature in the room felt real instead of imaginary. She slipped her feet into the slippers then slipped toward the door against the smooth floor.

Penny slid the door open then looked back and forth covering her mouth. Her tears returned only out of joy. She hadn’t been dreaming after all. It wasn’t a product of her imagination. She stepped forward looking around the room but stopped in her tracks observing the familiar environmental machine standing in the center of the residential deck. Robot’s rechargable helmet lifted up uncovering his figure. Penny took a few cautious steps forward in the direction of Robot with tense muscles.

“Robot?” Penny started, cautious, clenching on to her index finger slightly afraid.

Robot’s upper half twirled toward Penny.

“Good morning, Penelope Robinson,” Robot said.

All the caution was thrown out of the air lock as she crashed against Robot’s chassis into a impromptu hug.

“It’s so good to see you,” Penny said. “Really see you!”

Penny leaned off Robot with her arms wrapped around his lower waist with a smile.

“This is the first time we have met,” Robot said.

“And please, call me Penny,” Penny said.

“As you wish, Penny,” Robot amended.

“Good morning, freshly baked muffins!” Smith’s voice vibrated through the chamber. “I see you have met Blinky the Robot.”

“I do not like that name,” Robot said.

“Blinky, Blinky, Blinky!” Smith repeated. 

“Stop calling me that!” Robot said. 

“Blinky, Blinky, Blinky!” Smith said.

“I am warning you,” Robot’s red claws cackled with electricity.

“It’s quite adorable,” Smith and Robot turned their attention toward Penny at once. “And cute.”

“A very fitting name,” Smith said as Robot lowered his red crackling claws. “Wait one moment, my dear.” Smith returned from the galley holding a stack of clothes. Penny’s eyes lit up watching him stack on a pair of pink matching boots. “Ladies first.”

“Boots! New boots!” Penny planted the stack of clothes against her chest in glee. “Golly, thank you, Doctor Smith!”

She planted a kiss on his cheek standing on the tips of her toes then made a run for it toward he bathroom. She stripped out of the warm comfortable clothing, tossing her slippers into the pile, headed for the shower. She dropped the new clothing on to the lid of the toilet then hopped into the shower. The next moment that she came out of the steam coated shower, her eyes caught sight of a electric pink booth brush and tooth paste. Her hands were shaking with renewed skin and hair that felt renew in ways that she hadn’t had in over three years.

Penny squeezed open the tooth paste then stripped a portion onto the brush and began to brush her teeth. The familiar sound of the tooth brush against her teeth buzzing as it went was a noise that brought out her glee. Electronic for the first time in her hand was operating with a battery that was exponetional. She changed into her clothing with little effort. Her uniform was different than she had imagined it in her novel. As if she had transitioned to a newer version that was similar but not quite to the one her mother had worn in her diary into the second year being in space with the exception of the small long sleeved jacket. Her main outfit below the jacket was sleeveless by all accounts.

Her face was lively, the smile that she had watched faded away on the river with each passing day had returned, and she was staring at the Penny Robinson that had been in her heart all along. Last but not least she put on the comfortable boots. She picked up her pajamas and slippers then strolled out of the bathroom and promptly was passed by Smith closing the door behind him with a loud clack.

“Robot, where do I put my dirty clothes?”

Robot flipped the pan as his helm twirled toward her.

“In the pink basket across from you,” Robot said.

Penny’s attention shifted toward Auxiliary control.

“There it is!” Penny exclaimed walking toward the basket. “Thank you, Robot.”

She took the pink slippers from the clump then dropped the collection into the basket. She returned into her cabin and put the slippers into the closet with ease of pressing a few buttons and the bed was gone before her eyes retreating into the wall. When she came out of the cabin, the older man had exited his stateroom cleaned and refreshed even in his trademark uniform with all the right colors in the right order: black, neon green, and purple.

When she walked further out of the cabin, her eyes squinted noticing that he wore a small jacket just as she did. Black wasn’t quite black, it was dark purple, the neon green was plain green, and the purple was a bright pink. A similar color combination that belonged to Will lacking the yellow color. And the outfit was sparkling before her eyes. He had three bars on his arms instead of two indicating his rank as the commander of the vessel.

“What kind of uniform is that, Doctor Smith?” Penny asked.

Smith twirled on the heels of his feet toward Penny with a flattered grin.

“A adventure uniform,” Smith grasped on the edges of his v-neck. “Dislike it?”

“Black looks better on you,” Penny said. “So does purple and green.”

“That is perhaps the nicest compliment I have been issued since going on my own,” Smith twirled a finger in the air. “Some people call it ugly.”

“It’s not ugly!” Penny said. “In fact, I find this color scheme nice to look at.”

“Breakfast is ready!” Robot announced.

“Ah, I knew I was smelling something delicious!” Smith and Penny walked on ahead toward the prepared table.

Smith sat from across her then put the napkin on to his lab.

“Bon appetite,” Robot waved a arm above the table.

“Thank you, Robot, for the meal,” Penny said, picking up a fork, a clean cold fork, with a trembling hand then began to eat.

* * *

After breakfast, Smith donned on yellow winter gear over his uniform. Penny descended down the stairs from the Jupiter 2 then came to a stop from beside the stair case looking on toward the direction of the campsite in winter gear. She wandered slowly, warily, through the thicket of greenery until coming to a halt in front of the failed colony site. She began to submerge into the past, into what had been before, Don and Judy standing outside quietly discussing their possible figure together and for their siblings with Will listening in from behind another shack after chasing after one of the wildlife for the hell of it.

“Are you feeling quite alright, my dear?” Smith asked, concerned.

Penny looked toward the source of it.

“Never better,” Penny said.

“Is there anything else on this planet that belonged to your spacecraft?” Smith said.

“Yes,” Penny said. “This way.”

Smith silently followed her through the well traveled path and came to a stop observing the Chariot with a green interior coated in vines, debris, rocks, partially submerged in a rock slide a few years ago. It was covered by clumps of snow that gave a shadow of what it had once been shielding the view of the greenery. Penny knew the greenery was still there. It was always there each time she bothered to return and pray for her family. A family vehicle that had helped her family up to the tropics. Her hands were trembling staring up toward the fallen transport. Penny felt a hand land on to her shoulder then she looked over toward the source.

“Where is your spacecraft?” Smith asked, softly, kindly, yet in a small tone.

“You can easily detect it in long range scans,” Penny said. “Always been there. Always will be. Too disabled to be flown or repaired.”

“According to your family,” Smith replied.

“Daddy doesn’t lie,” Penny said.

Smith’s sincereness was replaced by softness tinged by self-righteousness.

“I know the finest mechanics in the galaxy capable of fixing the craft and fixer uppers who love to get their hands on this,” he twirled his hand toward the Chariot searching for the right words for it. “Doom trap!”

“Who’s that?” Penny asked.

“Aeolis Umbra Repair Service. I am very connected to its fourteenth station in management. Used to be its main repair mechanic back in my youth as a young lad.” Penny began to fall as her world began to fall into darkness. “Penelope!”

Smith caught Penny as she fell into the black.

* * *

_“Aeolis 14 Umbra,” Smith repeated. “Calling Aeolis 14 Umbra.”_

_There was static clicking over to the device._

_“Aeolis 14 Umbra, come in, please,” Smith plead. “ Do you read me? Mission accomplished.  
Mission accomplished.”_

_ He held it for a moment waiting for a response. _

_“What do I do now? What clever instructions do you have for me now? How much more money are you going to pay me for this excursion?”_

_ A loud rumbling disturbed the man._

_“Aeolis 14 Umbra, do you know where I am? Do you know?”_

_ Fright and fear began to break his calm revere into hysterics._

_ “Do you know?” Smith yelled._

* * *

“Do you know what you said?” Robot’s voice was the first that Penny began to register.

Smith hmphed.

“Yes, ninny,” Smith started. “I said I was the king of Nostradomus and she was the chosen one for a prophecy.”

“That sarcasm is unbecoming—“ Robot started but was cut off.

“Sssh, she is coming to!” Smith said,

Penny’s eyes completely opened then she began to lift herself forward off the wall.

“What happened?” Penny asked, rubbing her forehead.

“That is what I was about to ask,” Smith said.

“You fainted,” Robot deadpanned.

“The last I recall is that you saying something about Umbra. . .” Penny’s attention lifted up toward the duo. “Those are aliens.”

“Squid aliens,” Smith said. “How do you know they are aliens?”

“I. . . Made them . . . up,” Penny lowered her gaze in shame. “Even you.”

“Coincidence!” Smith took Penny’s hand then helped her up to her feet. “Let me guess, you even invented my ship.”

“Yes!” Penny said. “I don’t know how or what kind of accident happened but,” Her hands chopped into thin air. “You are real.”

Smith laughed, light heartedly, walking away from her taking it with a grain of salt.

“Pure imagination,” Smith dismissively. “Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination.”

“This is no time to entertain—“ Robot was cut off.

“Take a look,” He took off Robot’s power pack then handed it into her hands. “And you’ll see into your imagination.”

Penny looked down at the power pack with widened eyes.

“Imagination is all around you!” He spread his arms out encompassing the surroundings. “It’s the most powerful force in the galaxy!” Penny put the power pack on Robot’s side. “It can help people get up to their feet and keep them going on comforting with its warm fuzzy parts holding their hand!”

“That is called hope, Doctor Smith!” Robot corrected.

“We'll begin with a spin,” Smith spun Penny then she came to a halt by one of the landing struts of the Jupiter 2. “traveling in the world of your creation, what we'll see will defy explanation,” Smith pointed toward the Jupiter 2. “If you want to view paradise. Simply look around and view it,” he gestured around the environment. “Anything you want to, do it. Want to change the world? There's nothing to it.”

He walked away from the young girl’s frame.

“There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination,” Smith sang, picking off several berries. “Living there,” he pointed up toward the sky. “you'll be free. .. if you truly wish to be.” He walked on popping berry by berry into his mouth then chewed began to chew. “Come, booby. We have a urgent search to begin. Perhaps we can find some warm sections of this paradise that we can extract some fuel.”

The duo walked off into the wilderness.


	4. Chapter 4

Penny got up to her feet then began to move from room to room in the failed colony. She packed many of the journals and photographs taken by the family during their stay that wouldn’t impact the weight of the ship including Will’s guitar. She returned into the ship and put the belongings on to the table. She returned to the colony site for the other survival equipment making sure to empty out and clean most of it before putting it on to a pile in the center of the ship. She took one last look at the buildings left behind at the colony then returned to the Chariot.

She grabbed a large tree branch that was similar to a fork then used it to slide down pieces of the large coconuts off the transport. She wasn’t going to leave it in the way that it had became. She wasn’t going to allow that to happen. It was so strange to see the plot device that she didn’t use often in her diary being left in disarray more than it had been in the times she had described its poor condition after being abandoned.

Rarely was it this way. And it tugged at her heart strings just to leave it behind in that way. No, deserves some sense of triumph. She leaped into the craft then lunged for the driver seat and followed the movements that she had watched the doctors move the instruments. The instruments moved the way that they had over two years ago. The Chariot rolled through the rock pouring out into the open with a hard grunt and chuffed away from its resting place over the excited cheering of the lone Robinson hopping up and down full of joy.

The Chariot rolled toward the Jupiter 2 but came to a stop in front of the saucer and rested her back against the seat. She looked up toward the saucer with a well satisfied smile then began her stroll out of the chariot and landed with a thud. She dusted off the uniform then went up the stairs. She stopped on one of the steps then sat down and looked on waiting for the return of the duo. She cupped the side of her face looking on toward the land that she had once considered a unescape hellscape.

Eventually, Penny looked up watching the duo come forth with confident strides radiating bliss. It was the kind of bliss that Penny liked and missed. It was as if everything around them fully come to life. She came down the stair and waited by the pole for the duo to come her way.

“Are we leaving this planet?” Penny asked in a small voice.

Smith wandered over toward the chariot then shook his head.

“It turns out we need to go to the tropics,” Smith’s gaze swifted toward the Chariot, stepping back, caught off guard then looked back toward the Jupiter 2 and back toward the spacecraft quite perplexed. “Is this full of solar energy?”

“Last time I was aware, it had a full charge,” Penny said.

“You did a good clean up, Penelope,” Smith turned toward the young woman. Smith looked back with a frown then joined her aside and placed a hand on the center of Penny’s back. “How about you do the driving to the colony?” Smith held a hand out for Penny. “You are leading the way after all.”

Penny took his hand then was lifted up onto the wheel then she went in.

“This will be the second time I have driven the chariot,” Penny said. “Gee,” She felt grown sitting in the driver seat. She felt higher than everything else with a lot of responsibility on her shoulder. “Leading the way . . .” She sat down into the driver seat then buckled herself up. “It is strange.”

Smith went toward the passenger seat then sat down beside her.

“Life is strange, my dear,” Smith buckled himself up. “I will beam the transmission for Umbra after we start to leave.”

“Gemini 12 looks almost like your ship,” Penny said. “Almost.”

“Almost?” Smith asked.

“She doesn’t have this,” Penny pointed toward the saucer. “She doesn’t have auxillary control nor a second deck.”

“So a single deck saucer,” Smith said.

“Yes,” Penny confirmed.  
  
“That will be easy for them to find on the lower half of this planet,” Smith said. “We will find it before them. That I am sure.”

Penny looked toward the direction of the colony then back toward Smith.

“Can I drive over the shacks?” Penny asked. “Before we pack this?”

“You may do anything that you wish,” Smith said.

“A sad place shouldn’t be left to stand,” Penny said. “If it were full of happy memories. . . Maybe. . Maybe. . . Maybe I would have left it be.”

Penny drove through the clearing toppling down the trees in the path and going over ferns. Her hands grasped firmly on the two long poles erupting out of the main console. She arrived to the colony, victoriously, heroically driving on toward the site with determination in her eyes. Each and every one of the shacks fell down with a loud grumble beneath the Chariot and pieces of mud landing on the windshield. The wipers slid back and forth knocking the rocks out of the way. Smith leaned back into the chair covering his eyes with his sunglasses during the task snoring away. She drove over it repeatedly until nothing was left of the disaster site.

She stopped, parking it, then leaned forward and began to cry leaning her head against the wheels. Smith slipped up his sunglasses then leaned forward and put a hand on her shoulder patting it in comfort as all the feelings tied to the building were let go. Penny stopped trembling then leaned up erect and she wiped the last of the tears with her sleeves. With all those feelings gone, Penny was renewed in a more capable condition turning the Chariot in the direction of the Jupiter 2.

“Jolly ho!” Penny cried, cheerfully, riding off in a way that startled Smith smacking his back against his chair with a yelp. 

* * *

The Chariot returned to the Jupiter 2 quite eventfully then they disembarked the transport after arrival. With that down, Penny and Robot were the first ones to leave returning into the ship. Smith quickly disassembled the Chariot with ease then Robot came down and helped the older man while on hover mode lift the heavily folded Chariot into the residential deck. The door quietly closed behind the duo before her eyes after a press of a button. Smith put a hand on her shoulder then she jumped and turned toward him blatantly terrified.

"I am not used to . . ." Her fear had lowered at seeing the source of the hand then visibly relaxed.

"Having someone with you," Smith finished. "It is alright." He patted on her shoulder. "Let's go to the bridge," he was the first one to start walking away holding a guiding hand on her shoulder from the residential deck's entrance toward another door with Robot beside Penny. "We are ready to go to the tropics!"

Robot was the first to arrive at the doorway then pressed on a button and the door opened before them. Penny observed the wall decorated in paintings of outer space, deserts, starships, and forests. There were many kinds of starships that were colorful on the canvas ranging in size and width. Some of the paintings were narrow with silver rockets in different variations with landing legs on the barren landscape and a sharp tip.

Smith pressed a button then the door opened before her eyes revealing the interior of the bridge that she had only imagined. Her eyes stopped at the portrait of a solar system. Smith walked on ahead of the young woman toward the bridge of the ship.

Robot twirled toward Penny and silently waited by her side for her to come out.

The freezing tubes were where she had imagined them to be in around the room.

“Why do you have freezing tubes?”

Smith paused, in front of the chairs with his hands on the back rests, shifting toward Penny.

“She used to be a great ship in her day.” Smith said. “A colony ship for Taurons.” His eyes scanned the room quite fondly even toward the ceiling. “Transported small families at a time to our new home thousands of years ago."

"How old is your friend?" Penny asked.

"Quite young," Robot then pointed a red claw back at Smith. "Compared to _him_."

"Slander!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

Their bickering continued like that for the next few minutes that slowly began to reel out Penny's precious laughter between the two. Her shoulders were shaking from all those rosy feelings spreading throughout her very being coming through parts of her body that were just awakening to feeling positivity more often than before.

Their bickering stopped just as their attention shifted on toward the young woman. When Penny stopped laughing leaning forward with one hand on the back rest of the chair, her first sight was of a warm smile on the doctor's face and Robot's figure was shaking in the middle of his mechanical laughter.

"She has been updated since then with the finest technology but the freezing tubes have not,” Smith continued.

"Were you two assigned to this ship when she first rolled out off the production line?"

"After," Smith shook his head. "Long after."

“I was not assigned to this spacecraft before he came aboard,” Robot said. “I used to be a explorer from the planet Flim Flam."

“They _were_ very small,” Smith said. 

"Action figure size," Robot said.

"The officials called him Flunker when he was given to me,"

“That is a preferable name over Blinky,”

"Why? Why?" Penny asked. "Why name someone as successful and strong _that_?"

"Because I flunked their conquering and destructive classes," Robot said. "After my launch from Flim Flam, I spent the last hundreds of years analyzing most of the planets that I past by."  
  
"You mean your escape, ninny," Smith said. "That wasn't how history went.”  
  
“According to my tapes, it is,” Robot said.  
  
"History not worth retelling," Smith said, quietly. “Penelope seat yourself over there, motor engine by the astrogator, and I at the pilot seat!”  
  
Penny sat down in the seat alongside Smith who clasped his hands together then rubbed them eagerly together looking on toward the view resting ahead of them. He peeled off the winter coat and tossed it behind him on to Robot and Penny took off her blue coat sliding it on to the arm rest of the chair then buckled herself up. She pressed her back against the seat then Smith flipped switches at a time. The lights below the deck turned to pitch black. The door to the conn locked. The ship began to launch up into the sky.  
  
Penny looked on watching the winter scenery remained the same except for the trees to become smaller and shorter before her eyes as the saucer flew further in the air. The remains of the fallen campsite stood out clearly before her eyes as brown leaves, chunks of Earth, sticks, and pieces of metal stood out from the ground. Penny gasped in shock.

She was really in the air looking down upon the planet for the first time in a ship. The saucer flew overhead leaving behind the fallen campsite. Penny wiped off a tear with a sleeve as she left behind the place that she used to call home. As horrible, as bitter, as miserable living there was, she was going to miss the once hospital environment for what little good memories it had made.  
  
“Can I get a ‘woohoo’?”  
  
“Woohooo!” Penny cheered as the older man looked toward her direction with a smile on his face.  
  
“Doctor Smith, I have been wondering this for a very long time,” Robot began. “Why do you throw your coats at me?”  
  
Smith looked over briefly from the window with a scowl.  
  
“Because you _are_ a coat rack for all who are concerned, you petulant dorm beetle!” Smith shook his head. “The idiocracy! The idiocracy! To stick me with a moron! Injures my self-image every day!”  
  
“You do that to yourself,” Robot retorted.

Penny stopped paying attention as the scenery was slowly changing before her eyes.  
  
The snow was retreating in layers before her eyes away from the greenery, the silver coat belonging to the sand, the layers of brown dirt. She began to lean forward watching the hungry sea come to view. The sea that had almost claimed Doctor West, a sea that had almost dwindled the party down to just her family, a sea that stood out as a ominous threat whenever she looked up from the tops of coconut trees. A sea that she decided was only to be the edge of no hope when it came to her retelling of her life. A hungry sea that had turned into the vastness of space as a threat to the Robinsons than any planet in the galaxy.  
  
She watched the raging sea crash in on itself, the whales that peeked out of the waves if only briefly shooting out jets of water into the open air, the relics of a ancient civilization dangling from side to side brightly glowing against the darkened sea. The sky was dark so the lighting illuminating the bridge acted as the light of a lantern flying in the darkness without direction. She looked on toward the lump of familiar shapes in the distance. The last time she had seen them was when she had turned around in her seat toward the back window watching it sink among the waves until it was no more.  
  
The scene only rose before her eyes as the waves parted from the beach front that the Chariot first went through. It felt so long ago but it was only quite recent for Penny. It felt as if it had been decades rather than a couple years leaving for a better environment. A daring, optimistic, hopeful move for a better future.

Instead, they were rewarded by a future that was dark just as the storm that they had gone into. It should have been the first sign of what was to come for the Robinsons. To them, it had only been a storm. It was only a taste of the darkness before it really began. They all should have taken the hint.  
  
The saucer flew over the mountain range watching the splotches of greenery be over taken by the yellow landscape. The terrain was familiar to her, once, as a memory but now it had turned into a real landscape full of awe.

She had only seen the image often in her minds eye when writing the adventure the other Robinsons were going through after their landing on a new alien planet. Keeping them on one planet for too long reminded her of her current reality so she made sure to have some of their adventures at facilities, on ships, on Earth, in space itself, and notably other locations. Tears rolled down her cheeks were wiped away. Now, she was the one beginning to have her own adventure on strange new land yet familiar territory at once.  
  
“There she is!” Penny exclaimed. “There she is! There is the Gemini 12!”

The Gemini 12 was a distant glint at first but as the relative saucer drew close and closer, she became apparent in all her aged glory. Her heart broke as she saw the windows had been shattered and sand half-engulfed the ship with bodies of grass sticking out from the front half of the ship. Pieces of the hull were standing halfway off the ship coated in layers of rust. The upper section of the ship’s dome had been destroyed by time.

Penny covered her mouth turning the chair away and her head sunk into her hands with a tremble then began to cry.  
  
“The Gemini 12 will not be down for long, Penny,” Robot said.  
  
“I know. . .” Penny said. “I am just crying because she is finally going to leave this planet.”  
  
Smith hummed to himself searching for a close by area to land the ship with his shoulders hunched and his gaze fixated on the surface.  
  
“Ah ha!” Smith brightened. “I found us a landing spot nearby! A few miles nearby our small home and the Gemini 12 to spare a lift off without damaging the neighboring spacecraft.”


	5. Chapter 5

Slowly, but carefully, the landing gear went down and the ship descended to the ground making a perfect landing. Smith fell back against the chair as Penny relaxed in the chair pressing her back against the comfortable chair.  
  
“I need help putting the gear in to the Chariot would you help me with that?” Smith looked toward the young woman by his side.  
  
“I can,” Penny said. “Anything else you need help with?”  
  
“I haven’t been the one to have help from another organic related being," Smith said. "If you like to help then you may."  
  
“Would I?” Penny’s eyes brightened with life and joy. “I love to help.”  
  
Smith looked on toward the Chariot.  
  
“I expect your father didn’t pack a rig,” Smith said.  
  
“We only packed the necessities,” Penny said. “We liked it up here so we decided not to make the journey back to the Gemini 12. We nearly lost Don just getting up here to escape from the winter.”  
  
“That is a logical choice,” Robot said. “Why couldn’t you have stayed on Regent Six? That was the best place you had been to in recent months.”  
  
“Regent Six is a planet that has scoundrels at every corner and children that picket pocket!” Smith replied. “Hardly the best place I have been.”  
  
“That is in the rich regions,” Robot said. “The poor regions are more kinder and less crime prevalent.”  
  
“Enjoyable for a time reason more like it,” Smith said.  
  
Penny bolted away from Smith as he deactivated the extra locks for each part of the ship. She pressed the upper button then fled down the corridor and Robot tagged along behind Penny leading down the ship to the exit. Smith lagged behind them taking off his gloves and picking up the fallen yellow coat that he slid over his forearm including Penny’s. He followed after them to the residential deck.  
  
“Which Chariot are we taking?” Penny asked.  
  
“Yours,” Robot and Smith replied.  
  
“It is fairly appropriate to use since we are on your planet,” Robot noted.  
  
“It’s Quano’s,” Penny said. “Not mine.” Then she corrected. “Quano isn’t real. This planet belongs to no one.”  
  
“Au contraire,” Smith replied. “He is very real.”  
  
“But, but, but, I made that name up!” Penny said. “There is no prince, there was no challenge, there was no father who was ashamed that his son's shame was witnessed.”  
  
“What shame?” Smith asked. “What are you talking about? If he failed in his rite of passage then it would account for that limb he walks with and the unexpected passing of his father." he looked off with pity in his eyes at a memory. "I was very shocked over that passing upon hearing it,” he shook his head. “Died too young.”  
  
They went into the Jupiter 2 then into the supply room and returned to the Chariot with a couple of luggage that varied in weight in her arms. Smith lifted each of them on to the rack and tied them down in part of the rope kept in the boxes up front alongside the seats. Robot was the first member of the group to enter the Chariot. Smith started to step into the Chariot when he abruptly stopped in his tracks turning halfway toward her and held out his hand. She took his hand then was lifted up into the Chariot and returned to her place at the driver’s seat.  
  
Penny drove the Chariot as she waited for Robot to make the announcement that they found a source of fuel after several hours out back, making sure to eat the packed rations and the jug of water that had been restocked in the Chariot, under the sun. It was a entirely different trek, asides to the pit stops to be made, dumping the mobile toilet was a task that required team work and determining what best to make a dump site.

For someone who was so closely similar to her creation, Smith had a remarkably small bladder that had to be released every two hours. A part of Penny wondered if the real Smith had that same tendency. Every time she took a look at him, he was sipping from a bottle that read ‘Gatorade’ with a orange-brown tint easy enough to mistake for apple juice through a straw. It was one of the amusing things to see in this adventure.  
  
During the afternoon, Penny observed the gracefully long birds flying overheard through the rusted binoculars then lowered the equipment down with a smile feeling warmth at seeing a familiar bird that she had seen on this planet during the first six months. It had three long tails, a long blue stripe down its belly starting from the beak, and a secondary black theme that made the feathers shine against the sunlight. She saw them often as the sun began to crest over the mountain range environment then slid down and closed the upper dome behind her. She went back into the driver seat as Smith snored away.

* * *

“We have approached a fruitful section of this planet for the fuel,” Robot’s head bobbed up.  
  
“About time!” Smith was the first to get up then planted a hand on her shoulder. “My dear, you should have some shut eye instead of helping me put the equipment together.”  
  
“Not at all, Doctor Smith,” Penny stretched her arms out leaning against the back rest of the chair. “I am awake enough to help you. I did help move the toilet."

“Unlike our dear companion, this machine needs to be handled with care,” Smith said.  
  
“I am very careful with the equipment,” Penny said.  
  
“Six hours. . .” Smith's gaze fixated on the darkness outside contrasting the yellow lights pouring out of the headlights highlighting a path full of pebbles. “We can perform the actual task of using the gear in the morning. Is that fair enough?”  
  
“We know where to go tomorrow,” Penny said. “It will take most of the morning just to get here and back.”  
  
“Penelope, Penelope,” Smith repeated with a shake of his head. “There is always a short cut to where one needs to be.”  
  
Smith was the first out of the vehicle then Robot and Penny followed closely behind them getting out of the Chariot. Smith handed down the luggage to Penny. The suitcases were lowered down to the ground then they followed Robot to the concentrated grounds. The hole was dug and the equipment was set up. As Penny made sure that everything was in place, she stepped back bumping against a hard pointed edge then spun on her heel toward the source. Penny’s tense muscles relaxed and her fight or flight instincts lowered.

Penny shook her head what laid before her eyes. Of the most pressing issue of all, his mind was entirely focused on filling the abyss in his belly as he started on the sweet potato. Penny noticed that across from the Chariot were the two sleeping bags set up and ready to be slept in. While she had put together the gear with help from Robot, Smith had been busy preparing dinner for the both of them.   
  
Smith was flipping over a burger with a spatula as Robot was setting up the table putting the plates where they needed to be including the synthesized napkins. Smith dropped the two freshly cooked hamburgers on to the buns then added tomato onto the cheese, lettuce, then put on the top and slid on a pile of white mass and a steaming potato alongside it. He slid a hole in the center of each potato to reveal the orange interior and slid on gold liquid on all the sides. He sat alongside Penny and put a napkin in his lap as Penny did the same.  
  
“What’s that?” Penny asked.  
  
“A potato,” Smith said.  
  
“Yes.. . .” Penny said. “but what kind?”  
  
“A sweet potato,” Smith said.  
  
Penny looked down in awe tilting her head.  
  
“I never seen this kind of potato before, “ Penny said.  
  
“You must have eaten it before,” Smith said. “Not knowing what it was called.”  
  
“Not really,” Penny said.  
  
“Hm,” Smith noted. “so just the regular kind of potato on Earth.”  
  
“Yes,” Penny said.  
  
“By the time you reunite with your father and mother, you shall be familiar to all kinds of potato,” Smith said. “There are many kinds of potato.”  
  
“Many, many, maaany,” Robot said. “This was farmed from Nansonia.”  
  
“Are you sure this isn’t from Earth?” Penny lifted a brow.  
  
“Never been there,” Smith replied.  
  
“Never laid a single tread there,” Robot said.  
  
“What is the Earth like?" Smith asked.  
  
“More green here than there is on this planet,” Penny said. “More friendly, kind, and nurturing than this. You would love it."  
  
“I can see why you miss it so dearly,” Smith replied, softly, before placing a piece of sweet potato into his mouth.

* * *

Penny bolted forward in the sleeping bag quite unexpectedly. The center of their makeshift campsite had died down over the passing hours. For a moment, a single moment, she searched for the members of her family. That it was all a dream and they were still heading for warmer territory to reside in as the climate shifted into winter. The lumps belonging to their sleeping bags being where they belonged, Will’s sleeping bag across from her with his guitar, Judy’s figure set between her and Don, her mother and father sleeping side by side across from the Chariot. The lumps vanished before her eyes revealing the empty scenery. And she was all alone.  
  
She can make out the shape of the Chariot resting from across. The blanket of darkness with some thicket decorating the scenery made her believe at first that she was back at the jungle all alone praying in front of the Chariot the night after Will had been taken. Her eyes started to water in the dark. Her shoulders hunched as her head fell into her waiting hands.  
  
A silent metal claw landed on her shoulder.

Penny looked over her shoulder with a startle for the owner of the claw then grew a small relieved smile.  
  
“I thought. . .” Penny said.  
  
“You are a very silly little girl, Penny,” Robot said. He shook his red painted claw up and down. “Stop with the negative thought. Think of one thought only,” his claw slung back into his chassis. “I am not alone.”  
  
“I am not alone,” Penny said.  
  
“In your mind,” Robot said. “You have to say it to yourself.”  
  
“Got it,” Penny nodded her head.  
  
“Even if it appears that no one is there, there are people around you,” Robot said. “We won’t be far.”  
  
Robot returned to wheeling around the campsite in a complete circle, just as he had started when she had fallen asleep, when she looked over expecting for the older man there was no one in the neighboring sleeping bag. She failed to see his night cap or his white nightie left in a small pile on the top of the suitcase only his adventure uniform with the dark boots. She flipped over on her side to face the direction that Robot had gone as he drew closer toward the Chariot.  
  
“Where is Doctor Smith?” Penny asked.  
  
Robot’s upper half twirled toward left.  
  
“Over there,” he pointed a claw toward a hill. “Watching the sun rise.”  
  
“Does he do that often?” Penny asked.  
  
Robot paused at the middle of the Chariot then twirled toward her.  
  
“Not often,” Robot commented.  
  
It was odd, even slightly out of character, for someone so unique as the doctor. She had written him as the kind of character who was eager to get a task done when he had stakes in it. He wasn't the kind to admire the landscape, to admire the beauty of the sky, how the lights played with the clouds and the shadows when arising or descending. His mind was normally preoccupied by food and water.

Penny slid out of the sleeping bag then half-tiredly stumbled after the direction that Robot had pointed her in. She slipped on her purple matching boots getting some sand in them at the same time leaving imprints behind.

She climbed to the top of the hill then stopped spotting the older man smiling at first that turned into a stiffening frown and a grimace then turned in the direction of the young girl.

His unpleasant features melted away replaced by softness as the distant sun rose up over the otherworldly sculptures peeking out of Priplanus then beckoned Penny down to his side. Penny looked around then put a hand on to her chest as the man beckoned patiently for her.  
  
Robot tailed after Penny to the top of the hill. With some resistance from the land and gravity against her in the descent down, she nearly lost her balance in the climb down the hill until she had confidence in being able to stand upright on her two feet. For the last few years being on Priplanus in the tropical region, she had left with a different view of the sun setting and the sun rising between the tall trees that blocked some of the view. She sat down on the boulder alongside him then followed the direction that his long bony finger was directing in. Her eyes followed the long imaginary dotted line until a oval doughnut structure stood out.  
  
“Look at this,” Smith said. “Isn’t is marvelous.”  
  
“Just about average,” Penny said.  
  
“Average, indeed!” Smith said, insulted. “It is beautiful. It is gorgeous. Exquisite. A planet fit for a artist to see to it that its beauty is caught forever.”  
  
“I am working on it,” Robot shot back as Penny’s attention turned toward the machine to notice that he had set up a canvas and held a paintbrush in one claw and a board of paint in the other claw. “This will be a masterpiece.”  
  
“And it shall!” Smith reassured, then shielded the side of his mouth then leaned toward Penny, whispering, “Among the artworks of Strange And Peculiar Art Museum.”  
  
Penny giggled covering her mouth.  
  
“My audio sensors caught that,” Robot said, pointedly.  
  
“Look!” Smith exclaimed. “The galaxy’s prized and most sought for secret!”  
  
“Immortality!” Penny said. Then she frowned. “When the sun goes through the doughnut it makes whoever is standing there a eternal life.”  
  
“No, my dear,” Smith shook his head with a chuckle. “Everlasting beauty. It will always be there through thick or thin,” the orange light arose over the land chasing after the darkness that retreated further and further away. “No matter the quakes, no matter the destructive force, hurricanes—“ then he stopped as the pool of light highlighted the rims of the sphere as he looked on admiringly. “Asteroids can destroy it but something of it shall remain.”  
  
“It will be a horse shoe,” Penny said. “That is what.”  
  
Smith looked down upon the young girl tilting his head.  
  
“What is a horse shoe?” Smith asked.  
  
Penny shook her head.  
  
“You are going to find that out for yourself, Doctor Smith,” Penny said. “I am surprised that you haven’t already.”  
  
“I as well,” Smith nodded then returned his attention toward the rising sun with his head lifted up. “I as well.”  
  
Penny’s arms were wrapped around her legs looking on toward the landscape ahead until her and Smith’s stomachs loudly grumbled for breakfast. 


	6. Chapter 6

After breakfast, the duetronium drilling rig was activated and it made wonderful noises. Penny smiled looking up toward the tip of the machine that did not shake from side to side. It vibrated but that is all it had done during the extraction of fuel. She looked around the area as Smith sat down in the chair stacking the empty cans on the improvised table alongside him with a hum. His attention shifted from the table to the young girl starting to wander away.

Unexpectedly, Smith sprung to his feet then bolted toward the Chariot. The older man stumbled in quite clumsily over the edge of the entrance way to the Chariot. Penny turned in the source of the commotion watching him search underneath the seats until he bolted up behind the green tinted windows came out with two silver and rectangle packages.  
  
“Penny, take these pop tarts!” Smith chased after Penny then stopped her with a hand gripping her shoulder. “this is not in my meal plan.”

Penny stared at the small stash that had been handed to her then looked toward the older man.

“But–“ Penny tried to refuse.

“No, buts,” Smith said wiggling his index finger. “I am focused on maintaining a certain weight,” he twirled his finger aimed down toward her. “Your focus is on regaining weight.”

“These are your rations,” Penny protested. “I can’t accept these!” she put them back into his hands. “I am not hungry.”

“Rations that I can replace!” Smith waved his hand in the air once putting them back into her hands. “Explore to your liking with Robot. Don’t underestimate your curiosity because you will be hungry and you will wander off from the camp site.”

“And you, Doctor Smith?” Robot inquired.

Smith returned to the Chariot then strapped on a black blending in laser pistol around his waist.

“I will be fine,” Smith said. “You won’t be gone long.”

“Sure you don’t want go with me and leave Robot to the station?” Penny asked, warily.

“Very certain,” Smith said. “Go on, my dear. Shoo!” he shooed her off. “Before I change my mind!”

“Okay, okay.” Penny said, then wandered off with Robot tailing behind her.

Smith watched her go folding his arms.

* * *

The landscape hadn’t changed much since her family had fled for the winter. The sand dunes were organized differently taking over places that she had once explored as little more of a playground with her hands in the side pockets. She walked over the mounds strikingly reminding her of a pyramid lacking a tip with Robot close beside her. Robot was silently twirling behind Penny all the while keeping up with her pace. Her pace wasn't fast. It was slow. The stride taken by a prey searching for predators lurking about instead of a young woman on a walk.

Penny knelt down then felt the petals of a flower with a smile. It had been a very long time since she was able to stop and admire the alien flowers in a long time without needing to worry about staying too long. She smelled the flower being rewarded by a welcoming scent. A long, big smile spread from the corners of her face. Penny closed her eyes savoring the scent with her fingers grasping on the stem of the plant.

“Warning, warning!” Robot came to a halt in his tracks. “We are in the vicinity of a lifeform!”

“Lifeform?” Penny turned toward Robot quite alarmed. “Is it a humanoid?”  
  
Robot whirred toward Penny.

“My long range sensors confirm this description,” Robot said.

“Let’s go back to the Jupiter 2,” Penny began to walk away but Robot stopped her with a long extended claw clenching against her shoulder. Penny turned toward Robot. “Robot. . .”

“I do not detect any signs of danger, Penny,” Robot said. “Not every life form is out to hold you as a prisoner.”

“I want to believe that,” Penny said

Penny walked on ahead of Robot, sliding her finger up and down her index and middle finger looking on toward the tall boulder surrounded by various rocks quite cautiously.

“Then believe it,” Robot advised.

“I will try,” Penny said.

Penny knelt down to the strange rock that had colorful diamonds sticking out of the center.

“We cannot take this with us to space,” Robot said.

Her fingers grazed along the tips of the small crystal. She stood back up then slowly tread toward the tall rock sensing a presence hiding behind it quite some distance away. The similarities between human and robot were there in its entirety. Humans had sixth senses while machines had sensors. In many ways they had sensors that were all the same but had to be respected and listened to.

“Listen to my sensors,” Robot joined Penny’s side. “There is no danger in the near vicinity.”

Penny giggled balancing herself on the boulders that protruded from the ground leaving Robot behind. Robot began to go after her at a reasonable pace. Penny came to a halt from above on a boulder then slid down. She can sense the presence of the lifeform was nearer than before. She dusted off her uniform down the long sides of the green dress. Penny came closer to the tall silver rock that was four feet wide with a sharp tip that glistened against the sun. It was decorated in strange hieroglyphic symbols.

“Hi,” Penny said. “I am Penny Robinson,” she held her free hand up. “Gift?”

A dark head peeked out from behind a rock with gentle nebula blue eyes staring back at her.

“Gift?” Repeated a young boy.

Penny nodded then shook her head.

“No weapon,” Penny repeated.

The young boy completely revealed himself from behind the boulder. His arms were bat-like in nature coated in a fine layer of purple fur, his ears were that of a bat set on the top of his head, his eyes were pitch black to her with little visible displays of light. What little armor and clothing he had made him stand out against the yellow scenery in dark purple clothing that sparkled against the sun with a sword sheath wrapped around his waist and a backpack latched on to his shoulder full of equipment.

“This is a amethyst,” Penny pointed toward the colorful rock.

“Robert,” Robert took the amethyst from her hand. “Robert Nalaly.”

“You can speak English?” Penny said, surprised.

“No,” Robert shook his head with a laugh. “You are speaking my language.”

“Telepathy?” Was the first word that came to mind.

“Yes,” Robert said.

“Golly!” Penny said. “I never spoken with anyone telepathically.”

“What planet are you from?” He pointed toward Penny with a tilt of his head. “You are dressed strangely.”

“So are you,”

“You first,”

“Earth,”

“Papatopulus from the Starez System,”

“Sounds really far away,”

“What homeworld are you from?”

“Earth,"Penny said. "The solar system,”

“My homeworld is not far from your homeworld,” Robert noted.

“How far?” Penny asked.

Robert looked toward the sky thinking it over and Penny followed his gaze observing the familiar few clouds.

“I reckon it is roughly forty-three light years,” Robert said.

“Forty-three light years!” Her gaze lowered on to the young boy. “Sounds really far from home.”

“When you don’t have the drive for it, it really is long way,” Robert said.

“Where is your family?” Penny asked.

“My family is back home," Robert said. "I am on a rite of passage.”

“On this little old rock?” Penny's question was answered by a nod.

“A challenging planet done under the right permit,” Robert said. "It has been the ideal place to have a rite of passage for private families."

“You need a permit to be on this planet . . ." Penny said. "Golly."

“It is King Quano’s law that it be that way,” Robert said.

Penny at first frowned, skeptical, but genuinely confused.

She was unsure about Smith being her imagination come to life or being a genuine person who existed but now Robert's appearance was leaning to the second answer. If Quano was real, then how did she pick up his name? It was too much to be a coincidence. But, it was. Of all the alien visitors that the planet had in her time around the Gemini 12 and the new place that they called, not many mentioned the names of emperors, queens, or kings, chancellors, or presidents. She looked off quite sadly yet fondly at the thought of having adventures with her family.

“My family crash landed here a few years ago,” Penny said.

“And they are back at the ship,” Robert looked around warily as Robot came to a stop in his tracks a few feet from them then his helmet bobbed up in alarm over a boulder behind them.

“No. . . . They are away,” Penny said. “But I will get them back! And we will be happy again. Alpha Centauri or not, that’s all we need.” Robot resumed his path after them. “Each other.”

“Is that your servant?” Robert said. Penny turned toward Robot's direction then back toward Robert. “The metal being."

“Kind of,” Penny said. “He is my friend.”

“Is he a Rovit?” Robert asked.

“I am a Flim Flam,” Robot scooted between them. “Penny, you are to stay away from him during the rite of passage.”

“Robot!” Penny said.

“It is part of my culture not to bring guests on rite of passages for the sake of their well being,” Robert walked off from Penny but stopped in his tracks and shifted toward them. “I will keep this rock as a reminder of your kindness.”

Penny took out a silver packaging once hearing his stomach growl.

“Like some poptarts?” Penny reached out from behind Robot.“Giving you this is more kinder than giving a rock.”

“Poptarts?” Robert repeated.

“Junk food,” Penny said. “Things you can eat at any time.”

“I like that,” Robert said.

Penny opened it then handed the package to Robert.

“What is this?” Robert scowled looking up toward Penny.

“As I said, poptarts,” Penny said. “One hundred calories each.”

“I will reserve the gift for a later time when they are needed,” Robert packed the poptarts into the side pocket of his backpack. “Your gifts will be remembered.”

“And so will yours,” Penny said.

“I didn’t give you a gift,” Robert said.

“Your gift is being the first alien face that I have seen,” Penny said. “That is gift enough.”

“You are kind,” Robert said. “Very kind.”

“Good luck, Robert,” Penny shook his outstretched hand.

“You, too,” Robert said. “With your upcoming rite of passage.”

“I am not on a rite of passage,” Penny said. “I am on a adventure.”

“Penny, my sensors detect a unique lifeform over there,” Robot pointed from over Penny’s shoulder. “It is carrying developing another lifeform.”

“A kangaroo?” Penny sprinted after the creature. “Gosh, I haven’t seen a kangaroo in years!”

Robot turned toward Robert.

“Rovits and I share one difference,” Robot said. “Rovits are pre-programmed to slay a Negotia when it regards the safety of a charge. I was not.”

Robot turned away then wheeled on after Penny leaving Robert standing in the open.

“Quite fortunate you weren’t,” Robert said.

Robot stopped in his tracks then whirred toward Robert.

“Was that a sound I heard?”

“If you were a Rovit programmed to kill, my father would have came after you and erased everything remotely attached to it,” Robert said. “As if you never existed.”

Robot mechanically laughed, his chassis shaking, his arms moved toward his black torso linking his red claws together.

“How is that funny?” Robert asked, annoyed.

Robot turned around from Robert resuming his path.

“Erase me!” Robot repeated between tears of joy. “Erase me!”

Robert stood baffled in the middle of the desert watching them become distant specters to his eyes then looked down toward the silver packaging that crumbled beneath his long fingers.

* * *

Penny hid behind a rock then paused in her tracks looking on toward the tall doe. Her joey was halfway out of the pouch peering around the ground searching the landscape. It had been quite a long time since she had seen this creature before. The creatures that she had seen up on the other section of the planet were more of jungle creatures following in the lines of tigers, different breeds of monkeys similar to Debbie's species with pointy ears, snakes, and small rodents. Each of these creatures had a territory that they respected and adjusted their schedule to not be in their way or in her family's way.

Accidents did happen from time to time back at the lonely hellscape and they were capable of happening here.

Like the last accident that Will had when their parents were still there shortly after arriving to their new found home.

And it still hurt.

_"Daddy! Mommy!"_

_"Penny!" Maureen came over to the young girl's side catching her into her hands. _

_"Penny, what is it?" John was joined by Don close by his side._

_"Will," Penny said, distraught but shaken yet okay. "We were followed by a tiger. Will fought it and told me to run." Maureen took Penny's hands, steadying them, calming the young girl to the point that she was beginning to lose the shaking. "I think he has been hurt!"_

_"Don, get the laser pistols out!" John said. _

_Don ran toward the equipment shack._

_"He protected me. I couldn't do a thing. I was too scared," Penny said. "I-I-I-I couldn't believe there was a tiger."_

_"Where were you when you were attacked?" John asked. _

_"By the bluffs that look like Aztec ruins," Penny said. _

_"That is close by!" Don said. "Don't need to take the Chariot after all!"_

_"It's alright, Penny," Maureen said as the men ran on past. "It is going to be alright. Let's clean you up."_

_Penny wiped off a tear from her face coated in a layer of blood and dirt from the conflict. She was guided over to her shack then on to her bed. Maureen took out a small cloth then draped the hydrogen peroxide on to it then closed the lid and turned back toward her. It stung at first earning even more tears coming down her skin. Bandages were placed on the wounds and the dirt was cleaned off her skin from her hands to her face._

_Maureen scanned Penny's uniform checking for tear only to find none then sighed with relief. Then Maureen got up to her feet at the sound of John's voice. Penny followed her closely by the side to see John holding a limp Will who had one side of his face bleeding. _

_"Penny, stay with your sister!"_

_Maureen ran out of the room taking the equipment with her joining the men. _

_And it was the start of a more mature Will now that she thought about it. _

"That joey has a sibling in development stasis," Robot's deep mechanical voice brought Penny back to reality.

"I wish humans were like that," Penny said. "Going into stasis and remaining okay."

"My advanced sensors indicated you were thinking of your brother's wound," Robot said. "How bad was it?"

"I don't know," Penny said. "Will had to rest for several for two weeks. When he did come out of his shed, he had grown his hair out that I couldn't see what happened." Penny looked off from the joey. "It was my fault. I wanted to explore further out than the perimeters that daddy set. I know he got some kind of scar but he didn't need to hide it from the family."

"When he came out . . ."Robot said. "Was this after you lost your parents?"

"And Debbie." Penny said. She was silent as she lowered her head as the question sunk in. She turned her attention upon Robot with widened eyes. "You mean, he didn't want me to know. . . Because we were in enough pain already?"

"That is a theory," Robot acknowledged, his helm bobbing down. "But it is one that computes for you."

"It does," Penny said, quietly. "When I see him again: No more hiding. I am done being protected. No place to hide a fact around me."

"And no place to be alone in pain," Robot said.

Penny turned toward Robot then nodded.

"Right," Penny turned toward the doe. "Look!" She pointed. "The joey is out."

The joey was bouncing to and from around the doe as she was standing upright gazing around the area searching for warning signs of a nearby predator. A smile slipped on to her face looking on to the view. Robot twirled beside her with his sensors alert and running.

They were cooped up there for several hours tailing after the wildlife and watching them. Robot detected a certain relief echoing in her mind waves. It was content and awe. His processor suspected that she had done little animal watching and more hunting and foraging. Now given the opportunity to do that had been opened was a more blessed experience.

One that was dramatically releasing painful memories of the past. Memories that were being healed over by Robot's reassuring presence. Robot tailed after her following along to the landscape and had to remind Penny to eat her lunch, all hundred calories of it, it was clear that she wasn't used to being nagged in quite some time just to eat. Clear that she hadn't need to not pay attention to her surroundings as she ate.

Even as her caution and wariness slipped away during her walk, her attention was raised while eating being plagued by the mere thought of strange creatures lunging out and making a unexpected accident. She still remembered unexpectedly crashing into a nest of spiders and her heart jumping out of terror. She had been trained for a number of situations but never before falling into a by accident into a snake pit. It was strange to see the pit abandoned so quickly by the snakes slithering up the walls as she screamed and screamed for her father until Don and Will found her crying in the hole. 

For someone who was growing up and braved against the planet's threats all alone, she was thinking as a little scared girl, Robot noted. And needed help tending to the trauma.

* * *

“How was your trip?” Smith asked upon their return to the site late into the evening.

“It was wonderful!” Penny said.

"Uneventful," Robot said. "We saw plenty of does and joeys."

“Excellent!” Smith clapped his hands together.

“Do we have enough fuel?” Penny asked.

“Name the species who took your brother and I will know, my dearest,” Smith said.

“The Lesions,” Penny said as Smith opened the door.

“The–“ Smith twirled toward Penny with widened eyes and Robot bobbed his head up in alarm. “The Lesions?”

“Yes,” Penny said.

“That is not that far actually,” Smith leaned against the frame. “Those are the green people with distasteful ridges and gills on their neck, are they not?”

“Yes,” Penny said. “The one that wear visors and can fly.”

“Capable of synthesizing fuel for their own consumption,” Smith said. “That is a very tall order.”

“Do you mean they are dressed like barbarians?” Penny asked.

Smith stared at her, surprised, for a long moment then shook his head with a small smile.

“I can understand that you disliked them so much to belittle them in your imagination,” Smith said. “They are civilized people.” He put his hand on the center of her back. “I have packed all the equipment for the short trip back.”

“Short trip?” Penny repeated then nodded as she recalled. She squinted at the doctor. “What kind of short cut are you thinking of?”

Smith leaned against the frame folding his arms with a smirk if only briefly.

“I will do the driving,” Smith said. “You must keep your eyes peeled.”

“Alright,” Penny hopped in then Robot came to a pause beside Smith as she sat down at the passenger seat and buckled herself up. It was a moment before the duo followed her in. “What are we going to take?”

“I made some adjustments to the wheels,” Smith replied. “Your family were planning to replace the tank treads shortly before they were taken.”

“Yes,” Penny said. “They were . . .”

“Why didn’t you replace them?” Smith asked.

“I needed to travel fast and blend in not stand out,” Penny said.  
  
“Ah, makes sense,” Smith said.

“Why did you need to replace them?” Penny asked as Smith sat down alongside her.

“Hold on, my girl!” Smith said. “Tolly ho!”

The Chariot sped against the ground yanking Penny back against the seat. Penny watched as the mountain rock surface grew closer. The Chariot slowed down, or did it, she wasn’t quite sure as it was going into the dark She pressing of the gravity against the chair slackened allowing her to lean forward releasing a sigh of relief. The green lights illuminated out highlighting the path ahead.

“A underground tunnel,” Penny said.

“A very cooling passage way,” Smith said.

“How did you find it?” Penny asked.

"As he finds everything," Robot said. "Poking things with sticks."

Smith rolled his eye with a grunt.

“I did some driving while you and the ninny were having some bonding time,” Smith explained. “Which is how I discovered the tank treads were not in good condition to drive quite well. The old tank treads fooled me during our last ride!”

Penny laughed then leaned against the chair gazing out toward the circular tunnel. She fell into a nap as the calming nature of the Chariot rolling over the bumps gently in a way that became a pattern and she leaned against the side closing her eyes. The electric engine made little to no sound during the trip. The sound of the tank treads going through a cave was a distinct noise that echoed through the tunnel.

* * *

"Penny Robinson, we have arrived."

Robot's voice was the first sound that Penny heard as she was taken out of the comforting fog. She turned away from the window then clumsily landed into the next seat across from her as Smith landed outside with a gentle thud. Penny squirmed out of the seat then righted herself up using the edge of the window as her guide. She looked up from the floor gazing ahead to see the familiar shape of the small saucer compared to the behemoth towering over it with light pouring over it and the surrounding area. She scrambled out of the Chariot then Smith helped her out of the chariot and down to the sand. 

Penny ran by Smith into the Jupiter 2. She ran back and forth as Smith put his back against the door watching her speed on by with various equipment set outside of the ship. Robot remained outside the Jupiter 2 waiting for Penny to finish the task. Each piece of equipment was moved in the format of boxes until the room that had been packed with all the belongings were empty just the way that she had entered it in. She ran out of the cabin with empty arms then breezed on through the doorway.  
  
Penny halted in her tracks with a big smile spotting the large and tropical garden that had grown around the forty-eight foot saucer. Many of the plants that had died during the beginning of their first winter come to life after summer had returned with new life and flourished even adapting to the seasons. A true spectacle of how life found a way. She observed the cabbages, the berries, the tomato plants, and the list went on to individual produce. Her fingers slipped across the fields of greenery surrounding the Gemini 12. Robot paused behind Penny as he took in each bit of the campsite with his sensors.

Penny took tentative steps to the door then reached out a trembling hand and pressed on to the button. She stepped aside and watched all the sand pour out through the doorway landing to the ground with a roar that belonged to the sea. She went inside the ship seeking around the room. The astronavigator was in the ceiling waiting to be lowered then repaired with a new shell. She pressed around the room until coming toward a closet door that opened revealing the hidden shovels and the brooms. 

She grabbed a broom then proceeded to sweep the sand out of the ship revealing the very damaged tubes that had only the metal parts of them left behind. Shadows of what they had once been were all that were left. Robot and Smith helped sweep out the ship. It took little time to get rid of all the sand. Penny stopped paying attention as she was became focused and entranced in the clean out of the ship that she didn't notice Smith exit the ship when the floor was only coated by a thin layer of sand.

Once she was done with the task, Penny sat down into the freezing tube and relaxed looking in on her hard won fruit. Bright light illuminated the room and she had to close her eyes at first to withstand the brightness. It took some time for the light to become familiar against the dark outlook leading away from the ship showing only the stars and the awaiting Jupiter 2 that had the upper deck lights off but the residential deck had its lights on.

From the large window, its sheer size at eighty feet felt relatively larger compared to the ship that was small at forty-eight feet. In time her eyes adjusted to the intensity of the light coming from the shot panels that had lost their glass coating. Robot wheeled beside her, silently, only coming to a halt beside the freezing tube.

"Do you feel better, Penny, with this therapeutic exercise?" Robot asked.

"I feel a lot better," Penny lifted her head up with a nod toward Robot then pat on the frame. "And so does the old girl."

"The Gemini 12 is quite young compared to our ship," Robot said.

“What is the name of the ship, anyway?” Penny asked. “It can’t be Jupiter 2.”

Robot bobbed his helm up, sharply.

“It is—“

"I have dinner ready!" Smith cut Robot off, Their attention shifted from each toward the older man standing in the doorway with a plate held up in on hand finding Smith holding a plate decorated by four BLTS and two drinks wearing a gleeful smile. “Dinner is on me!”


	7. Chapter 7

The general came to a stop at the doorway then took off his hat. He closed his sighs then released a sigh. The multi complex was decorative and bright just like all the other complexes that had sprouted up from the ground to serve as some housing for the increasing population in the city. Each section of space in the apartment was reserved to people and the space was determined to fit their needs. He raised his had up then knocked on the door rapidly and lowered his hand. The door opened before the general’s eyes. Displeasure melted the curiosity on the man’s face before him.

“No!”

The door was slammed in his face. 

“Come on, Jack—“

“Don’t Jack me!”

“We could really use you in the Family Program,”

The door was swept open loudly with a screech.

“I am not ready,” Replied the younger but well aged man well in his fifties with a curved but small and thinned out mustache. His hair had receded some ways since his glory years. “Not ready at all.”

“You knew them for a finger of years and worked closely with their health,” the general held his two fingers up then wiggled them. “That won’t happen a second time. Alpha Control and the Medical Association of Doctors have made a agreement about it.”

“I said I am not going to work on that silly, disastrous, and ill-fated mission, Franklin!”

Franklin nodded, understandingly, seeing the pain in the man’s eyes.

“We got your office waiting for you,” Franklin said. “Just the way you left it.”

“General. . .”Skepticism decorated his voice and incredulous expression sprouted on his facial features. “Really?”

“There is always hope that the next family won’t suffer the same fate,” Franklin said. “We have come a long ways regarding the electronic brain’s reaction time. All of those testings with the lunar probes and uncrewed test Gemini’s have worked in the Kelpler belt with little to no guidance—“

“Except for the initial ones they sent out a year after the Gemini 12!”

“The one thing we have changed about the electronic brain is by marrying it with artificial intelligence,” Franklin said. “We removed the astronavigator.”

“And what did you replace it with?”

“The first environmental Robot,”

“Franklin,”

“To the center of the bridge,”

“Artificial intelligence can get lonely,”

“We took care of that problem. The machine dislikes being social unless it is—“

“They dislike being social unless it impacts the mission,”

“And we like you to perform some psychological tests regarding the family’s cooperation. If they don’t get along with it, in the week long trial, then they are out. Because this mission means we can’t have people who don’t represent the best parts of humanity. Respectful and kind.”

“Not just helpful,”

“Doctor Lessing, the Robinsons are irreplaceable but those qualities for the new family, should they get lost in space and wake up before the crash land, will prove instrumental to their survival.”

“And you are saying that first family to the stars were not?” Lessing’s voice turned cold.

“Unlike them, what I am trying to say, should they get off course their ship is programmed with redunecies to the point that they will wake up immediately after the course has been altered in some way if the machine cannot make the necessary adjustments in time. We have a booklet on how to reprogram the machine in the glove compartment installed beside the leader of the family’s pod.”

“Then why have me be involved at all if they can solve that little problem?”

“Because we need people who won’t alarm the machine that they intend to do something very nasty to their programming or just out right erase them,” The general explained then held out the cards for him. “I reauthorized your ID card.”

Lessing took the cards from the general’s hand.

“I will think about it,” Lessing said.

The general grinned.

“Great,” The general put on his hat then straightened it out. “I will be waiting for your answer in due time.”

“So the family program is back up and running?” Lessing asked.

“We have billions of applicants,” The general said. “We have only millions to choose from to relieve Earth.”

The general walked down the stairs then Lessing closed the door behind him.

* * *

A fourteen year old boy with red hair and long hair that covered the right side of his face was seated on a chair hunched over a cluttered chair with a large gray cloth beside his right arm holding several of his equipment for the task. He was in a white long coat that was faded which covered the faded blue coveralls while it was draped down the chair. The large glasses made his small eye appear larger than before peering into the machinery decorating the large desk.

A spark erupted from the tool then he dropped it with a hiss. He put on a pair of figure fitting protective gloves covering the many burns, scars, and bruises on his hands. He looked toward the machine that he was working on set in front of him. It was a small forcefield generator with delicate small parts and could be shoved into the ground. Small pieces consisting of cords, screws, bolts, and pieces of metal that went together.

His hands rolled up into fists. On his knuckles were bolts with small yet thin metal wrapped around his fingers keeping them in place. He looked toward the mirror then raised the equipment on the top of his head revealing a good outline around his eyes spared from the shoot. He slid off the equipment off the table then buried his face into his hands clenching onto his long bangs with a lowered head.

The equipment landed to the floor with high pitch clacks. His hands lowered faced with a diagram of what he was reconstructing on a screen across from him. His shoulders lowered in the middle of releasing a breath. He took off the white lab coat then discarded it on the edge of the table then proceeded to make the necessary adjustments. He eyed at the time above the draft plans every so often eager for the time to hit the one that he wanted the most. It was partially dark in the room.

“Now. This has to work,” He picked up the generator into his arms then walked out.

Each door slid open before the young boy allowing him outside at the front yard then he knelt down and placed it to the grass.

“You can do it,” he pat on the machine. “I got as much faith as I do in myself for you.”

The young boy strolled away joining a tall figure with their arms folded.

“This new take on the generator must work, Earth man,”

The young boy looked back, fighting back the urge to make the request, a request tha he had asked a thousand times, a request that went ignored.

“It will, it will, Master Nostago,”

They turned their attention toward the generator and sat in wait. Six legs detracted out of the side of the machine to the green grass. The machine suddenly erupted with a black cloud of smoke and the other generators that it had automatically connected to fell into the same fate. One by one shortened out until the back patio was cloaked by the dark but partially revealed by the starlight. Nostago glared down upon the boy.

“Oops?” The young boy turned toward Nostago, meekly.

A sudden slap and a stumble sent the boy falling to the ground rubbing his cheek.

“Why is it, that everything you do lately . . . ” Nostago’s rage slowly built before his eyes taking a cube then began to squeeze it while approaching him. “It falls apart!”

“I don’t know,” The boy shrugged.

“I gave you slack because you were a child,” Nostago smacked the box on to the table. Will remained still keeping his eye on the approaching brute. “And because of your high intellect. But this is ridiculous.”

“You ask me to repair everything not only for your people’s tech and education of cybernetics,” The boy replied. “I have been overworked.”

“Overworked you?" Nostago hissed. "You don’t know the meaning of it, Earth man.”

“I am a Earth child!” The young boy raised his tired yet exhausted voice. “I am not a Earth man! My body wasn’t made for this kind of work.”

"You were so promising when I first came across you," Nostago said. "So energetic and compliant. A quite young and useful individual capable of doing whatever I asked."

"You give me long work hours and little time for myself," The boy's hands turned into fists. "I can still be that person if given the accommodations."

"The accommodations are not enough for you? Not enough!" Nostago shouted. "The tailored clothes, the food, what little of bed rest that can be afforded to you out of that very busy schedule," Nostago's voice turned into condescension. "Do I need to take your privileges of turning off the finger cybernetics?"

"Four hours is enough for a adult," The boy admitted in one breath but then added in the next breath, "but not for a child!"

"I have been fortunate to see that proven wrong by my previous employees," Nostago said. "You are not a child anymore. You are a man."

"Yes, but they weren't human!" the boy shot back. "I am still a child by my planet's standards."

"Why do you call yourself human?" Nostago asked. "Most species call themselves after their homeworld. And it makes you sound a lot more special and mythical than a simple wild animal."

"I have been as kind and as understanding for the last year for the sake of my sister. . ." The boy started. "You're breaking me with this schedule."

"She would have been a finer specimen to take. She would have enjoyed the assignment. Taking care of the finnicky creatures and studying in depth as I wanted,"

"But those creatures were alien snakes!"

"Space vipers are very complicated creatures that need a steady hand and a open mind to calm them. Not often do I come across someone capable of making a king cobra remain in a non-defensive position,"

"If you liked her so much then why haven't you bothered trying to find her," His words were icy and hard.

Nostago began to stammer.

"That planet is very difficult to get the right papers to get approved just to land---"

"You had no difficulty arriving to the planet," His hazel eyes stared down Nostago. "You have tried finding her. You can't. Because she is so adapt at hiding. And you want to know why that cobra wasn't in defensive position? My sister was terrified of it and she was still as a rock keeping her eyes on it. She didn't chase it or walk toward it."

"She admired it in her terror, she does that, of the sheer beauty the creature was and how different it was compared to the one on Earth. She always comes to me and tells me about the creatures she sees even the strange warped versions of snakes we knew from Earth. The snakes always slither away or remain docile around her because they know she wouldn't bring any harm to her."

"Not like you! She knows it in your eyes," The boy finished. "She can see it just like that anaconda did!"

Nostago's eyes became heated as he grew still staring down upon the young boy.

"Go to your room, Earth man," Nostago said. "Before I do something that you will regret asking for. And no supper. No breakfast in the morning. No shower, morning or night. You may rest. Your other privileges remain intact."

"Good," The boy came to the doorway then turned toward Nostago. "I don't feel like eating with the other servants."

Nostago shook his head.

"That's great news," Nostago said as the boy walked out. "It's a start to your absence not being noticed."

Nostago went inside and the door closed behind him.

* * *

Doctor Lessing was reading a novel, at least he was_ trying_ to, in his comfortable chair set beside the window. It had been over three years since the loss of the Gemini 12 and all of the souls. Not a peep had came from the family. Not a word since their course had been changed. He rubbed his chin looking over toward the framed photograph of the construction site for the other Gemini’s that had been taken quite some months ago. He put a book mark into the novel then put it on to the counter beside him.

The Family Program was back on after three years. Three long years since the Robinsons had gone out of their sensor range and long range sensors going at the speed of light. The thought that the couple and their children had perished in their sleep broke his heart. He went toward the invite on the table. The Space Corps had enlisted his aid in making sure in one of the many thousands of people were going to be prepared for the flight and after the flight.

It had been months since he went into uniform. Months that he had spent returning into the civilian sector of medicine and did what a doctor did best to heal himself: heal others. Smoothing over the memories of the children and the adults with those that eased the heartache. A heartache that had finally been burned out and cleaned up. The uniform fit as well as it had the last time that he had worn it. His assignments at numerous hospitals were all military and approved by one of his long time general friends. A friend who used to be close friends with him but had drifted away into the space program and he went further along into medicine.

"Just to look around the place," Lessing told himself. "Just to look around."

Lessing put on the ID card on his breast pocket and went out the door.

* * *

"Who was your primary doctor while waiting for your ship to be ready?" Smith asked once Penny exited the shower and stared at him quite blankly at first. “I understand it has been a long time since you considered anyone from Earth but it is prudent.”

Penny looked off struggling to find the memory then her eyes darted toward the older man.

"Doctor Lessing!" Penny said in realization. “I wrote him in as Zumdish in my diary.”

"Does this Doctor Lessing have a fax number?" Smith asked. “That your parents shared with you.”

"Yes,” Penny said. “You can do that? Send faxes across space? Not just on a planet?”

"It is quite possible,” Smith said. “I need you to write it down," Smith handed her the note pad. “Best as you can remember it at the table.”

"What are you going to do?" Penny asked, her eyebrows briefly raising.

"Get your family’s medical history," Smith said. “If we are going to rescue them then we need a given medical record to rely on regarding their previous health was before launch.”

Penny walked over toward the table with a yawn then Smith came to her side and handed over the pen. She wrote it down with a few strokes of the pen then stood up to her feet stretching her arms out.

“Are we leaving in the morning?” Penny asked.

Smith took the two material.

“Very so, my dear,” Smith said. “We’ll leave when you are awake and then. . .”

“And then what?” Penny asked.

Smith chuckled, looking down to his feet, light heartedly.

“I just tripped over myself. What I meant to say was once you wake up, we will get into our space uniforms and depart this travesty of a planet.” Smith twirled his hand toward the Auxiliary door quite animatedly. “But it will have to be the uniform of this ship.”

“Is it any different?” Penny asked.

“I have no string or hint of what your space suits looked like,” Smith said.

“It may be better off that way,” Penny said. “It will be weird. Getting into a space suit again for space. But without my mommy, daddy, sister, brother, and Don, or Debbie. . .” her eyes sorrowfully looked down. “I made her a space uniform. I still got it. And she never got to wear it.”

Smith put a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed it, understandingly, sympathetically.

“Thank you, Doctor Smith,” Penny pat on his hand. “And good night.”

“Good night, Penelope,” Smith watched Penny go into her quarters and close the door behind her. “You too, ninny.”

“Ahhhh,” Robot wheeled toward the other cabin. “My shift is finally over.”

“Don’t get too comfortable with it!” Smith retorted as Penny listened in. “That rescue mission may need to happen at night."

"Highly unlikely," Robot said.

"You will have to start getting your tapes and programming prepared for this risky occasion," Smith said. "And polish your lying points."

“Bah hum bug!” Robot said, closed the door behind him with a loud clack.

Smith grunted in response as his shadow trailed away from the machine along with his distinctive lack of footsteps being capable of heard at all. Penny watched the light from the center of the residential deck turn off then she walked over toward the sleeping bag on the extendable bed from the wall. Her heavy eyes fell closed and she was fast asleep falling into a dream dipped in the wells of a slowly brightening up imagination regaining its color, optimism, and life. A smile slowly grew on her face as her soothing and silly imaginary episode of the other Robinsons went on.

* * *

"Welcome back, Doctor Lessing," the young MP greeted the older man at the gate.

Lessing looked toward the MP.

"Not quite back," Lessing said. "I am just here for the tour."

"Oh, sure, the tour," The MP went over to the station then the gate went open. "You can go in, now."

"Thank you, officer," Lessing said.

Lessing walked through the opening left by the lack of the gate looking around the area that had proven to have little changes. All except for the large makeshift massive construction behind Alpha Control that was full of elevators going and from at different sides of the facility.

Most of the ships were almost completed by the looks of it resting in the hangar complex. Bright stand out red that hadn't faded at all since the photograph had been taken of the initial building on the ground floor. Most of the other Gemini's were being built somewhere around the country and the world to amount for the massive space needed to house ten million million or more Starships for the first wave of them. All of them spread out throughout the world and heavily guarded.

It felt so long ago that he walked in then walked out after the last six months came with no word from the Robinsons. He had held out hope for their survival. Hope that the Gemini 12 did not have a tragic crash land and everyone died in their sleep. The thought was comforting that sleep had claimed them from before pain, hardship, sacrifice, and any forms of desperation. It was the ideal imaginary and reassuring thought. One that he wanted to believe with in his soul and mind. One that he wholeheartedly believed in. They had looked so forward to the future, to making history, to being one of humanity's triumphs and success stories.

He walked in to the lobby of Alpha Control. Everything was different in style and in appearance. He liked what they had done with the place. Colorful, bright, all except with the replacement of long beads in the doorway instead of actual doors. It was surreal to find the room styled differently but everything remained right where it was for a visitor. Luxerious bookshelf, purple chairs that matched the walls, different shades of vibrant colors from the neon lights along the edges of the room acting as a spot light. Several people were waiting in chairs highlighted by the purple , pink, blue, and green lighting reading into the piece.

"Is the military becoming cheap with the doors, miss?" Lessing asked.

"Alpha Control is trying out the 'retro feel', sir," the receptionist replied. "Feels a lot nice." She filed her nails with a smile. "For a year."

"Ah, a year!" Lessing said.

"Yes, a year," The receptionist replied. "Then we are going back to doors and boring white lights."

Lessing patted on the counter. 

"It speaks of fun, fun, fun!"

"It's smooth, real smooth," the receptionist said with a laugh lowering the nail filer. "Nothing of mundane and down to Earth. Personally? I could do with doors."

Lessing looked up observing the decorative iterations of Gemini hanging from the cieling among numerous portraits of peace corps conquests and leaders most notably the moon and mars missions still geared on terraforming it for future colonists. A process that was taking a long time. He went through the hallway that had once been one that he had needed to open with a door. Instead of being white walls with blue rugs, it had been replaced by purple walls and dark brown floor that was highlighted by colorful spotlights. His eyes adjusted to the colorful theme to the halls then followed the same path that he had taken many times in his cooperation with the military and the space peace corps.

He slowly slid the door open and the room appeared to be well cared for. Nothing had changed that much in the building but it had been painted green, yellow, and orange. The way that the color had been handled made him feel that he were in a art studio instead of Alpha Control. Asides to all that color tone and brightness, he felt somewhere safe but relatively new with little things. Little things had changed but it was just the way that he had left the garden of Eden with a highway to the stars. A paper came out of the fax then he closed the door behind him approaching the paper. He picked it up.

_Dear Dr Lessing:_

_I have recently come across the matter of the Gemini 12 and her crew on a far off planet. Most specifically of this urgent fax, Penelope Robinson. I require copies of their medical files for the purposes of historical archive and comparison of what their health could be in the foreseeable future. If you can provide me with their files then I shall provide you with a in depth copy of the young Robinson daughter's diary regarding their current fate that is all up to date and gets caught up for purposes that do not relate to the family's fate. I have listed my fax number at the bottom of this note. You may show the diary to the senior officers._

_Penelope Robinson is in safe hands. _

_Sincerely,_

_The Historian. _

Lessing looked down at the fax number staring at the unique signature that was in hieroglyphics. His signature.

"A real god to honest alien," Lessing said. "They are alive! They are alive!" He went over to the cabinet then searched for the copies. "I know they are!"

He took out each of the papers then slid them into the fax machine and typed into them. He watched as the paper slid down into the machine and vanished before his eyes. It was a long five minutes standing in the silence waiting for paper to come back out of the machine. A series of papers returned from the fax machine one page at a time much to his sheer dread and anticipation. With shaking hands, he stacked them together. Lessing stapled at the edge until all he had was a thick novel in his hands and hurriedly rushed out of the office.

"Someone, get me General Hawk!" Lessing announced. "The Robinsons are alive! I have just made first contact with a friend of theirs!"

* * *

Penny awoke, showered, and ate then Smith measured her with the same equipment that he had used around her figure earlier. Moments later, he returned with a silver suit that sparkled complete with the boots and the gloves. He was changed into his silver uniform that was similar but not quite to the Jupiter 2 uniform that fit on his figure nicely. Instead of the red secondary theme, it was orange. Penny withdrew to her room then changed into the uniform and slipped into the Jupiter 2 uniform. She stood in the middle of the room rubbing her shoulder feeling odd to be in familiar thread without her family members.

It did not feel right to be without them as the last time that she was in it, they were huddled together on the bridge looking on to the planet they had crash landed on and how different it was to the long range probes that had transmitted descriptions of the second Earth. A shadow came over her. She looked up then smiled at the patiently waiting mechanical companion waiting by the doorway. Penny walked out of the cabin joining Robot's side then went up the elevator alongside Robot. The door to the elevator was slid open. Slowly, but surely, Penny walked toward the front half of the ship holding on to her gloved hands.

"Ready to go?" Penny asked.

"I am ready," Smith said.

"So am I," Robot said.

"Please, be seated," Smith instructed.

"Okay," Penny's excitement was clear in her voice as she moved toward the front seats and Robot came to a stop between them.

“This will be very dangerous retrieving your family, Penelope," Smith acknowledged while Penny sat down.

“I accept that,” Penny said.

“Each and every one of them are being held captive as slaves for the best interest of someone else," Smith reminded Penny. "Getting them out of that will be a miracle. It will take one.”

“We have a lot of miracles,” Penny said as the ship lifted into the air and the lower windows were all closed. "Everything is going to be okay.”

“Alright, my dear," Smith said. "You need to learn a few things.”

“How to fight?" Penny asked. "I can do that. Self-taught. Always worked on my side. I know how to hunt, climb a tree, debone—“

“No, that is not what I am thinking of,” Smith shook his head.

“Then what is it?” Penny asked.

“You will need to learn how to handle a laser pistol," Smith said. "We do not need accidents. Is there any hate for any other species you may share asides to the Lorelei."

“No and no,” Penny said.

“No hate what so ever?” Smith asked.

“I only have room in my heart for love,” Penny replied.

"So do I," Smith agreed. "So do I."

The landing legs were curled underneath the belly of the ship soaring up through the different layers of the atmosphere then exited into pitch black.

"It's so dark out there," Penny said. "I thought there would be stars."

Smith flipped another switch then the world was engulfed by the view of stars and the rim of the galaxy stood out.

"You need the right prescription to see what you need to see," Smith replied. "Starships and spaceships share more than the metaphor of a body with a human than one thinks they do." Smith slipped out a piece of paper from the side then slid it into a wide and large slot. The paper was slid in then it sunk inside the slot. He moved the attached microphone toward his mouth. "Transmission target: Aeolis Umbra Repair Service Station 14. Somewhere along the area the humans call Alpha Centauri. Please send it to them. It is very urgent."

"Target acquired," A female voice came over. "Would you like to send the message? Are you sure about this? Once you send, it cannot be unsent."

"Send," Smith requested. "Thank you, mi'lady. Pleasure doing business with you." He took his fingers off the two buttons then turned toward Robot and slid off the head set. "Set in the course."

"Affirmative," Robot turned toward the astronavigator then wheeled over toward the side and set in the course moving the long but stubby stick. "This is going to be a long trip."

Penny slid into the chair looking on with her hands in her pockets as a big smile grew on to her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Corrected the million, I had it at one point five million instead of ten million.


	8. Chapter 8

"So, the Robinsons are still alive?" The general asked, once looking up from the paper. "How are you sure this is not a prank?"

"This is my old fax number," Lessing said. "No one knows my new one."

"Were there any other papers?" The general asked.

"That was the only paper with writing on it," Lessing replied. "It isn't. . . It isn't really sensible. Appearing on the same day I returned."

"Hell of a coincidence," The general said. "And the report ends with the beginning of a new one."

"Unrelated content," Lessing said. "She was a very imaginative child."

"This news will reassure the public of the Gemini's fate," The general said. "And maybe, renew some vigor into the family program."

"The volunteers will be more willing than ever to join now that they know there are others making a path for them," Lessing said.

"Let's hope the president agrees," The general said. "I suspect that she will be over joyed to be the one to make the announcement."

"Gleeful to be the president who announces it," Lessing said. "Are the other nations going to be told first before the announcement?"

"I am very sure they will," The general walked around the table then came toward the fax machine. "It will quiet all those fears about the Gemini Starship colony classes not sufficient to stick together after a collision of space junk." The general paused, hopeful, spreading a smile of his own. "Lessing, would you like to--"

"I would love to call the children's grandparents first," Lessing said. "I will make sure they don't go to the press. They'll be giddy," The general put in the fax number for the white house then pressed send. "I am sure they will."

"Are you ready now to be on active duty?" The general asked.

"More than ever, my old friend," Lessing said. "I will see you after my first thousand so interviews with the applicants and the AI's."

"I will see you, Jack," The general said then picked up the phone and put it to his ear. "Hello, operator? Get me the president." 

* * *

Several hours passed on the bridge of the ship. The prescription to the windows were changed to that of seeing stars pass on by the ship as bolts of light. Penny looked out in awe at the scene that laid before her. She only left the bridge upon Smith's prodding to eat something. She returned to the bridge after finishing the necessity. Only Smith shook his head behind her then proceeded to make his way after her linking his hands behind his back and briefly unlinked them to open the door.

"Penny," Smith stopped Penny in the hallway.

Penny turned toward Smith.

"Yes?" Penny asked.

"You need to learn how to fire a laser pistol," Smith joined her side. "Aiming is very crucial."

"Why?" Penny asked.

"For self defense," Smith said.

"Don't I need a permit for that?" Penny asked.

"Not when it comes to survival," Smith said.

Penny gripped on to her fingers sliding them up and down thinking it over with a wince.

"Do I have to?" Penny asked. "Robot is always going to be there."

"_'Always'_ tends to have a ending." Smith put his hand on the center of her back and began to guide her toward the elevator. "Thunderstorms happen with people who not know how to protect themselves."

"It is how people stand in the rain in sorrow instead of dancing in it," Robot chimed in. "I will operate the bridge."

Robot took the other way as Smith slid his had on the side pole then the elevator lowered down a deck.

"Exactly," Smith said.

"What is this deck?" Penny asked.

"The much larger cargo deck," Smith said. "There is a training section in here somewhere," he slid open the barrier then was the first to walk on out looking around with his hands behind his back clasped together. "It has been quite awhile since I have came down here for that sort of thing."

"How long ago?" Penny asked.

"Too long," Smith said, grimly.

Penny joined the man's side weaving through the large cargo bay. A question began to form in her mind regarding the subject of the decks, the quarters, and each of the rooms. A part of her wondered how many additional rooms that the ship had. Her referral of non-existent rooms came back to her mind, words that she had put into the man's mouth, words she didn't very think of all that much. Seventeen quarters? There had to be more with the sheer size of the ship. Not just the handful of rooms that she had been allowed to see in the residential deck. She came to a stop at a station then Smith handed her a laser pistol.

"Raise the laser pistol and fire,"

"At what?"

"This, my dear girl," Smith stepped aside then slid up a bar on the console. "And aim,"

"Aiming,"

"Fire." Smith watched as a shot knocked down a can then the can flipped back up with only the edges of it steaming. "You have to aim for the x. X marks the spot, after all."

Penny's grip on the weapon was trembling.

"I can't fire at people,"

Smith applied pressure to her shoulder.

"The day is approaching fast that you shall,"

Penny turned her attention on the targets quite taken back and scared of that thought.

"You_ are_ preparing me in the event that things don't go our way." Penny pointed out.

"It will go our way," Smith assured. "It's for self defense. As I have told you."

"It won't," Penny said, certain.

"If things don't go our way then I will dance in the rain and you get to watch me," Smith said. "Deal?"

"Deal," Penny said. "If it goes our way then we eat lots of icecream."

"Arranged," He gestured toward the targets. "If you have a desire to live then you must fire at the targets. Extend your arm," he raised her arm up. "Aim it with purpose." Penny steadied her grip on the weapon. "Think of the gun as your fingers."

Smith stepped aside then watched as she shot at the targets that flung back a few at a time with clumsy aiming and laser shoot decorated the wall.

"Good job!" Smith applauded.

"Thank you," Penny said.

"One moment," Smith pressed a button. "Here is the hard part."

"What is the hard part?" Penny asked.

Smith looked down upon Penny then flashed a grin.

"Moving targets!" Smith replied. "We will do these training sessions every afternoon and if we have to continue it off ship if the ship has another engine problem then we will do it on the wildlife! Behold! " He stretched his arm toward the station. "Your moving targets."

Penny turned her attention back on to the station. More poles slid up with moving cans that had been cut up into figurines that had faded paint. She stared at the figurines searching for those that were armed. She lowered her gun then the old man sighed, irritated, yanking out the cord to the station. He looked down toward the laser pistol then rolled his eyes and smacked his hand against his forehead.

He grumbled to himself incoherently moving to the side panel of the station then lifted it up and took out a tool box behind it. Most of the grumbling that Penny could hear didn't make sense but some of it made her struggle to force back a laugh at his grumpy demeanor. Smith was a serious man who held himself in respect and dignity so it was fair enough not to behind his back. Penny held on to the laser pistol on her side with her fingers wrapped around the handle making sure not to press her finger on the trigger.

A few minutes later, after plugging the station into the outlit, the older man returned to her side after closing the side paneling then pressed the button. He gestured toward the station and folded his arms looking on anticipating the next rounds of fire. Penny raised and fired the light weighted weapon at the moving figures attached to small tiny versions of laser pistols and other unique takes on laser pistols. She missed a few of the shots. She lowered the laser pistol watching on the screen behind the fallen figurines display fireworks. Smith looked down upon Penny quite proudly that made his face even beam down toward her. Words could not best convey how he truly felt Penny honing her skill in using the laser pistol.

"How tall is the ship, really?" Penny asked. "She has a deck devoted to residential purposes, the bridge deck, the auxiliary deck, the room for the Chariot, and the engine room."

"She is very excellent at fooling the eye at her size," Smith said. "She is larger and wider than you think." he twirled his finger into the air for emphasis. "Hides everything in plain sight." He slid a cart beside Penny. "Here is a variety of weapons you will need to become familiar to---" he held his hand up to cease her questions. "For the event of a drastic emergency in where you need to be familiar how to hold and use them."

"I get that," Penny said. "Gosh . . ." she stared at the collection. "Don't these belong on the walls?"

"Yes, they do," Smith said. "Plastic versions." Penny's attention shifted on to the older man. "I hate guns."

"I can see why," Penny nodded in agreement. "They would be dangerous to have on Earth. Let alone have them in the house. Or walking around with them in public."

"A bit of macabre," Smith said. "Which one would you like to try first?"

"The biggest one," Penny said. "That is the one I will need to be more familiar to. It will be the first weapon I pick up."

"You are a very smart girl, Penelope," Smith handed the large, thick weapon into her arms. "Turn off the safety."

"Okay, which one is it?" Penny asked. "And what kind of gun is this? A barrel laser gun?"

"It's a sonic laser boomer," Smith said. "Red metal, ah there, you got it. Slide it aside. Carefully. Good." He nodded to himself, satisfied, of the proceedings. "Wait right here. I will change the settings and the playing field of the station. It will turn into a game that you might be familiar to on the Earth."

"A arcade game?"

Smith came behind the paneling of the station.

"One of those rolling ball games except there is a playing field and moving figures," Smith knelt down.

"A video game!" Penny said. "But video games are on screens."

Smith poked his head up, tilting his head, baffled by her reply then shook his head and ducked back underneath the edge of the machine.

"Not quite what I am talking about," Smith said. "It is a very advanced machine with many layers that it is beyond a Earthling's understanding. Even for a Earth man."

"I think I understand," Penny said. "A little."

"Long as you have some understanding of it operates then that is all you need," Smith replied. "Alright," he covered the panel up then stood up to his feet. "I will clean off the shoot once this session is over. In the mean time, you can join Robot during his shift."

"I like to help you clean the shoot off, Doctor Smith," Penny said. "I have done enough standing around and just sitting around being alone."

"Then you may stay."


End file.
